Istanbul, Turkey — Four-year-old Ferhat Altinbas said he was imitating his favorite flying Pokemon character when he leaped off the balcony of his family's seventh-floor apartment in October in the southern Turkish city of Mersin. Two weeks ago, when Seda Aykanat, 7, stepped off her fifth-story balcony here, she was convinced she had the same superhuman powers as a cartoon Pokemon.
The two incidents in which both children suffered only broken legs prompted broadcasting authorities to make Turkey the world's first government to order the temporary shutdown of a television network for showing the popular children's cartoon series.
The decision, in which officials criticized the cartoon for making no "distinction between good and evil," has fueled a rancorous debate here over the government's right to control programming based on the messages it sends youngsters. The government attack on Turkey's most popular children's cartoon has stunned broadcasters accustomed to the arbitrary decisions of a government board that evaluates everything from radio music programs to television movies, talk shows and newscasts.
"It is vitally important for the media to give correct, healthy and educational messages to our children," said a report prepared for the Health Ministry after the first jumping incident. The report recommended that "cartoons, before they are shown on TV, should be evaluated by a commission of psychologists."
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