Program "Time": tolerance followed by exposure

The Sunday edition of the program "Vremya" on ORT on September 10, 2006 could not pass by the events in Kondopoga. Of course, the presenter and correspondent condemned the pogroms, regretted the burned restaurant "Chaika", but at the end of the story, the presenter considered it necessary to say that the essence of the problem, apparently, is that some "representatives of the diasporas" do not behave as they should. And in confirmation of his thought, he referred to the Karelian governor Sergei Katanandov, who was talking the other day about "our people" and "another people."

Right after the story about Kondopoga, there was a story about Muslim immigrants in Great Britain. Since there was no news reason for this, it remains to be assumed that the Vremya program staged it as a hidden illustration of the Kondopoga events. The British story told about the difficulties of adapting immigrants, about how, after the July terrorist attacks, the British became less politically correct, and so on. All this is true, but it is worth noting the obvious imbalance in the presentation of the material. Most of the talk was about the preachers of terrorism operating in the UK, although this topic is only indirectly related to the theme of the adaptation of immigrants. To show the "Muslim presence", even a kind of clip was included in the plot: the camera showed the main historical sights of London, and instead of the text, the singing of the muezzin sounded. The only "expert" (apart from some vague Russian-speaking local girl) in the plot was a certain professor, an activist of the racist British National Party.

Sunday "Time" // Channel One. 2006. September 10. 21-00