Protest against discriminatory publications in the newspaper of the Voronezh city administration

On May 27, 2004, the Social Information Agency (ASI) reported that the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights of the Civic Chamber of the Voronezh Region sent an appeal to the Prosecutor's Office of the Voronezh Region and the Central Black Earth Territorial Administration of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation with a request to pay attention to discriminatory articles that are regularly published in the weekly newspaper of the administration of the city of Voronezh "Bereg" (circulation - about 13 thousand copies).

At the initiative of the committee, an examination was made of the publications of "Bereg" dated March 19 ("They don't fight for their homeland in slippers") and May 14 ("Do they understand what they are doing?"). The examination revealed the presence in the articles of statements "of a discriminatory nature, unfounded and illegal accusations against national and racial minorities inhabiting the Voronezh region" .

In particular, the publication of March 19 is an interview with one of the Voronezh skinheads, "where the image of the latter is positioned as a positive, ideal hero, an example to follow" .

Unfortunately, the newspaper "Bereg" does not have a full Internet version and archive. However, we managed to find one of the articles - "They don't fight for their homeland in slippers" (this publication is the second on the page ). Our readers can see for themselves the validity of the expert's assessments. Here, for example, is how the image of the interviewed "skin" is presented: "Our ancestors, the Slavs, used to shave their heads before a fight, which symbolically meant to discard everything superfluous, peripheral, leaving only a militant masculine essence. My interlocutor is bald - because he is a skinhead, because translated from English means skinhead. Once he found out about the "khachis" who sold drugs in Voronezh and forced Russian girls to engage in prostitution - and decided to punish the criminals, since the law did not do that " . At the end of the interview, he is countered by the remark that "certain anti-globalists" (? - ed. ) are distributing leaflets in Voronezh "It's a shame to be a racist"

And here are excerpts from this interview: "First of all, we oppose an uncontrolled wave of illegal immigrants who seize jobs intended for Russians; we are against international marriages between people of different races - we must strive for the purity of the nation's gene pool; and most importantly, we are against trade Gypsies and Caucasians were especially successful in the latter, but even if a Russian is involved in the sale of drugs, he is also our sworn enemy, however, like the drug addicts themselves, as well as sexual minorities and perverts. , in particular those who are used to living in their villages, who equate women with sheep and do not put them in anything: “if I want, I will rape, if I want, I will kill.” It is precisely for such beliefs that the media expose us as “thugs”, “fascists "And "shaven hooligans." You know, Stolypin did not say in vain: "You need to be able to distinguish blood on a surgeon's scalpel from blood on a murderer's knife . "

Andrey Meleshko, who conducted the examination, commented on the situation (UNITED International Network for Intercultural Cooperation against Racism, Fascism and Nationalism), "... such publications should not appear in the press at all. This is not an infringement of freedom of speech. International law prohibits statements that incite national strife. Articles of the newspaper "Bereg" are an abuse of freedom of speech " .

Sources

• Gusev Victor. For the Motherland in slippers do not fight // Shore (Voronezh). 2004. March 19.
• Newspaper of the Voronezh City Administration publishes discriminatory articles // ASI. 2004. May 27.