TV presenter in Turkey fired for showing cleavage on screen

New Delhi: A television host in Turkey has been fired after the spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) allegedly criticized her for wearing a dress on air that revealed too much cleavage. AKP Spokesman Huseyin Celik criticized the wardrobe choice and characterized it as extreme, but didn't say which host he was talking about. Only later was it reported that he was referring to the host Gozde Kansu who is seen in a video of her television show posted on YouTube strutting down a flight of stairs wearing a layered sequined black mini-dress with a neckline plunging almost to her waist. The show's producer claimed yesterday that Kansu might not take part in the program next week blaming her 'busy schedule.' However, the company that produces the Turkish show released a statement on Oct. 9, denying that Kansu was fired due to her low-cut dress. The show's producers confirmed her dismissal, claiming that her performance "was not in line with the show's aims". Kansu said that the choice of the dress and the recorded performance had been agreed upon with the producers in advance. Çelik responded to the outcry over Kansu's dismissal but said that it was his fundamental right to express his opinion as an individual, TV viewer and politician. “I never named a show or a person,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “It was the media who alleged the names.” Kansu's case comes in the same week that the government lifted a ban on women civil servants wearing the Islamic veil. Last month it tightened restrictions on alcohol, banning all advertising and restricting hours of sale.