Turkish women rescued from fake reality show

Nine Turkish women were held captive in Istanbul on a fake reality show that was actually just selling footage of them online. Eight of them are now suing.

While they “believed they were to be on a television show similar to Big Brother,” the women “were being told to wear bikinis and fight each other for the benefit of an internet audience” and “were surprised to find that pictures of them by the pool and exercising in skimpy clothing were appearing on the internet, where users were allowed to vote for their favourite by mobile telephone and charged to see more,” The Times reports.

However, the producers’ lawyer insisted they “were taken to the house under the terms of the contract that they willingly signed” and “denied newspaper accusations that naked pictures were sold to a website and that the girls were tricked and threatened by the production company,” according to The Times.