An episode of popular US TV sitcom Friends has been banned in Malaysia for encouraging promiscuity, the country's Censorship Board has announced.

The show was one of 37 films, TV shows and advertisements banned between April and June this year, according to the New Straits Times.

The edition which the board objected to was Year 8 Episode 11, which, it said, portrayed "casual sex, promiscuity amongst youth, pregnancy outside the institution of marriage and prostitution".

A live Kylie Minogue video was recently banned

It is not the first time the hit series has fallen foul of the censor in Malaysia.

In July videos of two episodes, The Video Tape and But I'm A Cheerleader, were also banned.

Other films and shows which have been prohibited include the musical Incubus: Are You In.

'Metal music'

The News Straits Times said the musical "got the chop for portraying free interaction between the sexes in an unruly and erotic manner, vulgarity and scenes of women wearing bikinis which may incite lust among men".

A documentary called Yngwie Malmsteen: Play Loud, was also banned for, the paper said, "showing singers sporting long hair and mop tops, wearing earrings and bangles and playing black metal music".

A Kylie Minogue video, Kylie Live In Sydney, was recently banned by censors, who have tightened laws relating to the content of films and videos in response to rising crime rates in the country.

Malaysia has some of the toughest censorship laws in the world, with television and film strictly vetted by the Board, which is under the authority of the Home Ministry.

Films are rated to guide audiences on the nature of the content, or banned outright if the material is considered inappropriate.

Scenes of kissing are often cut from films and TV shows, while swearing is usually erased altogether in an effort to protect "family values" among Malaysian citizens.