A news ticker has appeared at Istanbul's Ataturk airport warning travellers that Sweden has "the highest rape rate worldwide", days after that country's foreign minister criticised Turkish child rape laws. 

Photos of the news ticker, which references a headline from Turkish newspaper Güneş, began appearing on social media yesterday, with startled passengers not sure of what to make of them. 

Sweden has the highest rate of reported rapes in Europe, not the world. The country defines rape far more broadly than many other countries, and education campaigns dating back decades have led to women being far more willing to report abuse to authorities.

Furthermore, Swedish police record every alleged rape incident separately, rather than lumping various sexual assaults committed by a perpetrator into a single case file. 

The news ticker headline was lifted from a local paper's story.The news ticker headline was lifted from a local paper's story.

The news ticker appeared just days after Sweden's outspoken foreign minister Margot Wallström had slammed Turkey for removing a legal provision that automatically classified any sexual activity with children aged 12 to 15 as child sex abuse. 

By removing the provision, Ms Wallström had said, Turkey had "legalised sex with children." 

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