London halts N. Cyprus ads
LONDON (AFP) – Bus and subway adverts for a holiday in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus have been banned due to protests from offended Greek Cypriots living in London, the British capital’s transport authority said yesterday. Images of beaches and tourist spots in the northern section of the island plastered on London’s public transport last November triggered complaints from Greek Cypriots. As a result, the travel authority said it turned down a request from the North Cyprus Tourist Board (NCTB) to repeat the campaign this year. «It’s our policy not to run adverts if people complain about them,» said a spokesman for Transport for London (TfL). Running the advertisement campaign again «would have been considered a breach of a TfL policy which seeks to avoid causing offense to any section of society,» he said. The tourist board has appealed the decision, arguing that it aims to promote tourism to an area visited by more than 100,000 Britons last year rather than raise the profile of the island’s occupied north.
