Singapore TV fined $11,000 for "pro-gay" scene: paper

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's state-owned television was fined S$15,000 ($11,040) by the country's censor for promoting gay lifestyle by airing a programme that showed a gay couple and their adopted baby, a newspaper said on Friday.

The Straits Times reported that Singapore's Media Development Authority said the episode of home and decor series Find and Design, in which the host helped the couple decorate a nursery, "normalizes and promotes a gay lifestyle."

The pro-government newspaper said the censor had also objected to scenes of the couple and their baby as well as the host's acknowledgement of them as a family, because it broke a rule "which disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamorize gay lifestyles."

Under Singapore law, homosexuality is illegal and a man who is found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man can be jailed for up to two years, though prosecutions are rare.

Authorities have banned gay festivals and censored gay films in the past, saying homosexuality should not be advocated as a lifestyle. But, despite the official ban, Singapore has a thriving gay scene.

(Reporting by Jan Dahinten; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)