Turkish TV Channel Fined for Airing Homoerotic P!nk Video

Turkish TV channel, AS TV is facing legal issues after airing P!nk's "Secrets" music video. The video depicts dancers in same-sex pairings, dancing suggestively and even kissing. Arguing that the content was inappropriate, the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) fined the channel L17,000 Turkish Lira ($2,755) for breaching its standards.

The RTUK argued that children could be "negatively influenced" by the "erotic dance figures of a homosexual nature." The artist has not responded, but the decision received backlash from LGBTQ activists.

Although homosexuality is legal there, it's not the country's first time censoring these public expressions. Oppression has only become worse under the administration of President Recep Erdogan.

Police in Istanbul have used tear gas and rubber bullets, arresting 11 people at July's Pride parade for defying threats from authorities. The capital city of Ankara has also enforced a ban on LGBTQ events, shutting down a public screening of the film, Pride back in June. The country recently pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest, because of the show's history of LGBTQ inclusion.

"As a public broadcaster we cannot broadcast live at 9pm, when children are watching, an Austrian with a beard and a skirt, who claims not to have a gender and says, 'I am a man and a woman at the same time," said Broadcast Chief Ibrahim Eren. "There is some kind of confusion of mentality here... once this is corrected we will return to Eurovision."

Watch P!nk's "Secrets" video below: