Where There is Smoke..There is Tintin?

Almost half of Turks aged 15 to 49 smoke, according to a 2007 Gallup survey and the government last year extended the ban to smoking in all public buildings, including restaurants and bars. But fining a TV station for the smoking habits of Chicago mafia bosses portrayed in a Tintin animation is idiotic, stupid and shames the common sense of Turks. Tintin? Be real and stop this mockery. The whole world is laughing.

Mavi Boncuk |

A classic Tintin cartoon in which characters smoked pipes and cigars cost a television station $33,000, after Turkey's state media regulator The Higher Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) fined it for violating an anti-tobacco law that bans smoking. Nurullah Ozturk, a RTUK official, confirmed the fine when reached by telephone.

Turkish television stations usually pixelate images of cigarettes and other forms of smoking in films and series to abide by a 2008 law that makes it illegal to broadcast such scenes.