Offense for a joke

On December 22, 2005, the Public Collegium for Press Complaints at its regular meeting considered the complaint of the Chairman of the Fund for the Development of Muslim Peoples, a member of the IPA CC Gayar Iskandyarov against the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

The reason for the complaint was the humorous poem by Sergei Plotov, "Letter from Corporal Omegin Tatyana L.", which was heard on the air of the radio station on February 23, 2005 in the program "Well and a Day", in which, according to Gayar Iskandyarov, "incorrect, insulting to the non-Russian part of the population of the country" were admitted expressions "(the poem contains the following lines:. "Soon we will go ashore, Tanyusha, / Put the whole Chuchmekistan on cancer!" ). The applicant considered this "doubly unacceptable, since such terminology was used in the broadcast on the Day of the Deportation of the Chechen People" .

As a result, not only G. Iskandyarov, but also the chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Asian part of Russia, Sheikh Nafigulla Ashirov, applied to the radio station about this program. The radio station sent a reply to the applicant, but the latter was not satisfied with it, “because the editors did not want to admit their mistakes in anything, although in our opinion such “works” should never be published in the media.”

The position of the editors of Ekho Moskvy is that the poem has a pronounced satirical character, is written on behalf of a negative character and, accordingly, aims to "condemn the very phenomena of a nationalist nature that are also of concern to the applicants. Perhaps, stylistically, this did not turn out very well , but essentially neither the author nor the editors pursued the goal of offending the Chechen people and other non-Russian nationalities in any way .

Having considered the complaint, the Public Board consisting of V.A. Tumanov (chairman), E.V. Abova, M.A. Aslamazyan, V.G. Loshak, E.M. Sagalaev, M.A. Yesin and Yu.V.Kazakova, in particular, decided that the poem cannot be considered as "aimed at inciting interethnic or interreligious hatred." However, she drew the attention of the editors to the fact that "both the author and the editors underestimated the fact that among the huge and very diverse audience of the Ekho Moskvy radio station there will always be people who, for various reasons, are not prepared to understand or accept sarcasm as a way of expressions of attitude towards evil, or even capable of perceiving the monologue of the anti-hero as the author's position.The Board believes that this conflict would not have developed if the editors had found it possible to accompany this poetic insertion in the program "Well and Day!" authors, and the radio station from the character voiced on its air" .

Comm. Such a position of the Board, to be honest, is puzzling. Of course, there will always be people who do not have a sense of humor and perceive a joke as an insult. However, it hardly follows from this that ironic statements, especially in a humorous program, must be accompanied by an editorial commentary.

On February 23, 2006, G. Iskandyarov sent a response to this news to the SOVA Center. Remaining with our opinion, we put it without comment. At the same time, we are publishing a poem (taken by us from the text of the decision of the Collegium), which caused such an inadequate, in our opinion, reaction.

* I was upset by your comment on the article dated 02.22.2006 15:05 "Resentment at a joke."

Sounds kind of bad. I declare that with humor I have everything in order. But there are things about which it is inappropriate to joke. Try to "joke", for example, on the topic of the Holocaust, and I guarantee you a much sharper reaction. The author of the commentary did not bother to delve into the content of the documents presented by us and the "poem" itself.

We informed the Collegium about the shortcomings of the Decision on February 19 by letter. Here is its content in a nutshell.

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We thank the Board for considering the issue raised by us. Based on today's realities, in general, we are satisfied with the decision, which, we hope, will serve to improve the quality of the broadcast of the popular radio station.

However, we would like to make some comments.

1. A very obvious action is still not performed. The editors of "Echo" did not want to publicly apologize, first of all, to their listeners, whose feelings were offended in a program a year ago.

The opinion of the Applicant on the problems of interethnic and interfaith relations is possibly useful, but it has only an indirect relation to this issue.

1. The respected Board did not note that the poem also affects the Russian army, the obvious shortcomings of which cannot be extended to all military personnel who steadfastly bear the burden of military service, often in difficult conditions. It also does not say about the inadmissibility of using obscene expressions in a poem that sounds on the air.

2. It is not clear the degree of responsibility of the editorial board itself, which should be even higher than that of the author. What measures will be taken to ensure that such "pearls" do not offend the ears of radio listeners?

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I consider our comments worthy of attention and ask them to be published in response to your not entirely correct comment.

Sincerely, Gayar Iskandyarov*

The text of the poem

Sergei Plotov. Letter from Corporal Omegin to Tatyana L.

"Are you still alive, my Tanya?

Well, I'm more alive than not.

There was one mess here.

You are still writing to the infirmary.

Nothing, dear, calm down!

Trivia! Scratched slightly.

I'm in the best bed

I've been fooling around all day

Eat up dickin' pears

And I miss my hometown...

Soon we will go ashore, Tanyusha,

Put cancer all Chuchmekistan!

Well, the bastards dare to appear,

We will cut, Tanka, we will beat,

Like no one in the world can!

Better to fear and love us.

You, na... my wife, Tatyana!

I, na... you, na... love you!

If anything - I'll get it out of the ground

And to pieces, bitch, I'll chop!

Bye then! I won't say goodbye for long!

Sending a photo: I'm on an armored car "...

And, proclaiming a joyful dawn,

The nightingales rejoice in the distance."

Sources

• Decision of the Public Collegium on Complaints against the Press "On G. Iskandyarov's Complaint against the Ekho Moskvy Radio Station" // Public Collegium for Press Complaints. 2005. December 22.