Baptists again complain about the Vremechko program

The Moscow Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists "On Shelepikha" appealed to the Public Collegium for Press Complaints under the Union of Journalists of Russia with a statement about the violation of professional ethics by correspondents of the "Vremechko" program. The "anti-sectarian" plot of this program aired on the TVC channel on August 9, 2005. The program only mentioned the Church "Triumphant Zion", however, a part of the sermon by the pastor of the Church of the ECB Alexander Semchenko, who was called by a different name, was also shown, filmed with a hidden camera. At the same time, the commentator described the pastor as follows: “Confessor Vasily Petrovich did not work a single day in his life and had a term for parasitism, though it was a long time ago ... Today, a term for parasitism is presented to brothers and sisters as persecution for faith. so that now we no longer hide, as before, but openly and fearlessly collect tribute from the gullible and deceived already as an official religious organization.

According to the Slavic Legal Center, A. Semchenko was tried under Article 162 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for distributing Bibles, thus the correspondent personally insulted the pastor. A. Semchenko believes that "this story harms the business reputation of our Church, as well as the honor and dignity of its leaders and members, as it contains false and discrediting information about the activities of the Church."

The pastor also recalled that the decision of the Grand Jury of the Union of Journalists of Russia dated November 18, 2004 No. 42 (also regarding one of the plots in the Vremechko program) already noted that "filming with a hidden camera during a service is ethically unacceptable, since it creates a danger of interference into the realm of private life.

G. Korneeva, a lawyer for the CJSC "Author's Television", refused to acknowledge the claims of the ECB church. Her reply to the pastor states that "the opinions expressed by the journalists on the television program Vremechko, to which the Applicant refers, do not apply directly to the Applicant". In addition, G. Korneeva believes that the representatives of the church have not proved that the information that was disseminated is discrediting for them.

Hearings in the Union of Journalists on the application of the church "On Shelepikha" were held on November 27. According to the press service of the Slavic Legal Center, members of the Public Collegium supported the ECB Church in this conflict.

"The meeting of the board was chaired by the chairman of the Chamber of the Media Community, Doctor of Law, Professor Mikhail Fedotov, and the interests of the applicant were represented by the lawyers of the Slavic Legal Center Anatoly Pchelintsev and Sergey Chugunov," the SPC reports. "The head of the legal directorate of the TVC channel, Igor Eremin, was present on behalf of the defendant The lawyer of CJSC "Author's Television" G. N. Korneeva previously provided the board with a response to the complaint of the pastor of the church Alexander Semchenko, in which she refused to recognize the claims of the pastor of the community. discuss their opinion, but, according to Anatoly Pchelintsev, members of the board almost immediately expressed their negative assessment of the actions of "Author's Television", which discredit the journalistic profession itself. During the meeting, members of the board watched the plot of "Vremechka" three times. In fact, as Pchelintsev noted, The tone of the meeting was in favor of the ECB Church, and the members of the board agreed with the conclusion of Pastor Semchenko, who noted in his statement: “We consider the material shown in the Vremechko program to harm the business reputation of our Church and offend the honor and dignity of its members and the pastor — Semchenko A.T. With this material, the author disseminated false and defamatory information, thereby abusing the rights of a journalist and violating the provisions of Article 51 of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Mass Media".

Anatoly Pchelintsev also said that the ECB church did not immediately go to court, since in this particular situation the opinion of the public is extremely important. In addition, the Board's decision will be brought to the attention of the journalistic community. The representative of the defendant - the channel "TVC" - Igor Eremin noted that if the decision of the board is not in favor of "Vremechka", then the directorate of "TVC" with the directorate of "Author's Television" will have a serious conversation, since this kind of channel is reproached for violating journalistic ethics not needed at all."

Sources