Damn those pigs...

Piglet keeps Pooh off air

TURKEY'S public television TRT, controlled by the Islamist-rooted government, has barred the popular Walt Disney cartoon Winnie the Pooh from air because it has a piglet as one of its main heroes, the Turkish press reported today.

Several other cartoons featuring pigs also failed to win the green light from TRT management, according to the left-wing Cumhuriyet daily.

The station initially considered scissoring the scenes showing Piglet, but abandoned the idea because the small pink-skinned character, one of Winnie the Pooh's closest friends, appeared too often, Cumhuriyet and the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper said.

TRT officials were not immediately available for comment.

Pigs are regarded as unclean by Muslims and Islam prohibits the consumption of pork.

Winnie the Pooh has been aired on other television channels in Turkey and its videos are easily available at the stores.

Employees have recently complained of increasing government intervention in TRT's broadcasting policy, including also the appointment of ruling party cronies to key posts at the institution, which runs several television and radio channels.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, is under fire for seeking to raise the profile of Islam in mainly Muslim but strictly secular Turkey.

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