A female television presenter has been suspended from Kuwaiti state TV after joking with her male colleague about his appearance.
The unnamed woman was hosting the live coverage of Kuwait’s municipal elections last weekend.
As she was handing over to a male colleague, she joked that he should stop adjusting his headwear on camera, as he was ‘already handsome’.
The female host’s joke broke away from the formal presenting style normally seen on Kuwait Television – which is the official television station run by the Ministry of Information.
The clip of their exchange was widely shared on social media, and drew ire among government ministers.
Kuwait MP Mohammad Al Hayef tweeted the country’s Minister of Information, ‘asking him to take action against the TV host,’ Stepfeed reports.
The unnamed host was suspended, pending an investigation into the incident.
The issue has divided Kuwaiti Twitter users with some supporting the government’s stance.
Stepfeed reported that several people argued that a political news show should be formal, and not contain personal jokes between presenters.
However, others were outraged that the government seemed to go into overdrive over a harmless joke.
‘Leave housing problems, leave problems of corruption, leave problems of waste of public money, leave health problems, leave problems of education, leave the concerns of citizens that have been destroyed by the loans and high prices and the greed of traders – and go to cut the livelihood of a Kuwaiti announcer who said to her colleague “you are handsome”!,’ one Twitter user wrote
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