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Turkey’s 'morally clean' TV series under fire

Amid a big expansion in their foreign audience, Turkish TV series are barred from featuring alcohol, smoking and anything sexual, but are free to show unstinted violence.
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Turkish TV series are enjoying an export boom. A heavy dose of violence and gunfights may have contributed to this boom. Under pressure to attune to the government’s conservative worldview, TV series in recent years have been cleansed of love-making scenes and “bad habits” such as alcohol, drugs and smoking, leading producers to add thrill by increasing the dose of violence.

Arguably, the “moral” filter has facilitated the sale of TV series to foreign markets, especially Muslim countries in the Middle East.

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