Translated material
Regional Committee of Morality
Clergy lobby for the introduction of public censorship in the country
Russia's traditional confessions support the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROSC) to create a public mechanism to limit immorality in the media, but they still disagree on the form of such control. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov), proposed to the Minister of Culture and Mass Communications Alexander Sokolov to create a “public censorship and oversight committee to control the moral content of works and events of an educational, educational and entertainment nature in the areas of print, theater, pop and mass media intended for children and adolescents ".“It is not enough to create this or that council. It is important that it can really change the information situation in the country . This is very simple to do - you only need the will. We were able to demonstrate it in relation to the gambling business,” the deputy chairman of the Department of External Church Churches told RIA Novosti connections of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, commenting on the initiative of Metropolitan Cornelius.
Archpriest Chaplin believes that in the media there is too much propaganda of immorality, permissiveness, “beautiful life”, fashionable things, irresponsibility in the relationship between a man and a woman, getting money at any cost, hostility, violence and even crime. “In youth programs they literally hammer into their heads that easy money, easy relationships and light beer are true happiness. But in fact, people need to be told the truth: those who live only for money, pleasure and entertainment are always unhappy ", said Vsevolod Chaplin.
The head of the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate, priest Vladimir Vigilyansky, said: “In fact, we need a media supervisory board. It exists in almost all countries of the world. Recently, for example, in Lithuania a TV channel was fined for showing an offensive cartoon about the Pope. This is not preliminary censorship, and the next one."
Vladimir Vigilyansky also referred to the experience of Great Britain, where, in his words, there is “a whole system of supervisory councils,” for example, the council at the BBC. “On the recommendation of the state supervisory board, the court banned the publication in England of the poems of the satanic poet Rushdie (Rushdie is not a poet, but a writer; for his novel The Satanic Verses, the spiritual leadership of Iran threatened to kill the author, which is why he was forced to leave for the UK. - Ed. ), although he has English citizenship,” said a representative of the Patriarchate.
According to the head of the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate, legislators and the Public Chamber can create a supervisory council, and authoritative figures of culture and science, representatives of traditional faiths, and experts from the journalistic community should be included in it.
Representatives of other major faiths are more wary of the idea of public censorship. "The Council of Muftis of Russia (CMR) shares the concerns of Christians. The issue itself, of course, is ripe. We see widespread unbridledness and violence on television. All this corrupts our youth, instead of instilling the spiritual and moral values for which our peoples have historically been famous Russia," said Kharis Saubyanov, head of the SMR staff. He spoke in favor of creating a public supervisory council on educational and cognitive issues with the participation of religious figures, authoritative creative intelligentsia and representatives of official structures. “But all this needs to be thought through very carefully so that there are no echoes of Soviet censorship,” emphasized a representative of the Council of Muftis.
Chief Rabbi of Russia Adolf Shaevich (Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations) is also convinced that “there are things that should be taken under control,” primarily relating to the upbringing and education of children. “But there is a danger that this could provoke the emergence of other, negative things. Over the years of Soviet power, we have already been taught that nothing is allowed. All this must be discussed. We must be very careful,” the rabbi urged. In turn, the head of the public relations department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Borukh Gorin, proposed that religious organizations create “a kind of advisory body” that, solely at the request of journalists and publishers, would provide them with an “expert assessment” on issues of interest to them (including morality) and would provide information support for the purpose of competent coverage of the life of confessions. “But it is very important that this does not become mandatory,” believes Borukh Gorin.