Downton’s gay kiss ‘censored’ on Greek TV

Published on 17/10/2012 00:00

Greek state television has come under fire from the country’s main opposition party and critics for editing out a gay kiss on Monday night’s prime-time premiere of the ITV period drama Downton Abbey.

Greeks took to social networking sites such as Twitter yesterday to complain about the NET channel’s decision to axe a scene from episode one of the series showing a kiss between a visiting duke and Downton’s unscrupulous footman, Thomas. NET defended its move, citing parental guidance viewing rules.

“As incredible as it may seem for a democratic country in the 21st century, officials of the NET television channel censored the scene of a kiss between men from the TV drama Downton Abbey,” the Syriza party.

“This is an obvious case of censorship, an extreme act of homophobia and discrimination, which unfortunately we cannot characterise as unprecedented.”

One Syriza MP, Dimitris Papa-dimoulis, questioned whether the omission was due to pressure from the far-right Golden Dawn party or religious authorities with a tweet asking: “NET ‘cut’ a gay kiss on the premiere of a top TV series.

“Who decided this censorship? [Bishop] Seraphim of Piraeus and GD?”

The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation said the kiss was not censored, but rather edited out to comply with rules on the time slot and parental consent label given to the show, which was aired at 10:05pm.

“The love affair between the two men… was not censored,” said its managing director Costas Spyropoulos.