A newspaper in Turkey closely linked to President Erdogan has blurred out the bare arms of Jennifer Aniston and the other women from Friends in an article saying that it will infect Turks with homosexuality, incest and child abuse when it launches in the country on Netflix.
The Turkish branch of the popular streaming service Netflix announced that it would be adding the world-famous US TV show Friends to its streaming catalogue from 1st April.
The TV show, which became a global success, tells the story of six young adults living in New York and revolves heavily around romance and drama.
The news outlet Yeniakit, which is a conservative daily newspaper closely linked to the AKP party led by President Erdogan, has come out in protest against the airing of the show on the Turkish version of Netflix.
In an article titled “Netflix hopes to target our young people with the depraved TV show ‘Friends’ ” the news outlet used a picture from the popular show but blurred out the bare arms of the three women seen in the poster.
The article claims that the show will inject the young men and women of Turkey with ideas of “Homosexuality, incest, infidelity, sexual scenes, drugs and child abuse”.
The article goes on to claim that Netflix is part of a coordinated attempt to degenerate Muslim society by legitimizing ‘immoral behaviour’.
Hundreds of netizens responded to the article questioning its angle such as ‘Wasabi’ who commented: “Don’t watch it if you don’t like it”.
Netizen ‘spring’ said: “Friend’s has nothing to do with immorality.”
Some Netizens did come out in support of the article such as ‘Mustafa UDURGUCU’ who said: “This deviant series must not be allowed to air”.
The article demands that RTUK ( Radio and Television Supreme Council) the Turkish stat agency which monitors and regulates the media, step in and stop Netflix from airing the series in Turkey.
Netflix and RTUK are yet to respond to the article and ‘Friends’ is on course to air on 1st April.