The prosecutor's office represents

The continuation of the animated series of the channel "2x2" may appear in the program of the Basmanny Court

It seems that the commercial TV channel “2x2”, specializing in showing foreign “cartoons for adults”, is facing hard times. Yesterday it became known that the Prosecutor General's Office appealed to Rossvyaznadzor, an agency that also controls the activities of electronic media, with a complaint regarding twelve animated series appearing on the channel. The verdict rendered by some experts cited by prosecutors cannot be called soft. In conclusion, in particular, it is stated that “the animated films broadcast by the television and radio company “2x2” promote violence and cruelty, pornography, antisocial behavior, are replete with scenes of mutilation, infliction of physical and moral suffering, and are aimed at inducing fear in children , panic, horror." Moreover, watching the “wrong” cartoons “creates a danger of panic conditions and neurotic disorders.”

Among other things, experts who conducted research on behalf of the Moscow prosecutor's office targeted cartoons that constitute the "classics of the genre" - the series "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." It also became known that the Moscow interdistrict prosecutor's office recognized the content of “South Park,” another well-known animated series broadcast by “2x2,” as extremist. The corresponding statement has already been submitted to the Basmanny Court.

Let us recall that in March of this year, Rossvyazohrankultura already issued a warning to the channel regarding two cartoons - Happy Tree Frends and The Adventures of Big Jeff. In the first cartoon, officials saw propaganda of cruelty and violence, in the second - an attack on public morality. Then the management of “2x2” reacted to the decision of the control department in an original way: seditious cartoons disappeared from the broadcast network, but during March and April, during the showing of all series, the television picture contained the inscription: “Day of Remembrance of “Jolly Tree Friends” and “Big Jeff” .

Both then and now, not only law enforcement agencies, but also public, primarily religious organizations, speak about the danger posed by “2x2”. Thus, in March, the Russian Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (ROSHVE), uniting Russian Pentecostal Protestants, already sent a statement to the Prosecutor General’s Office demanding the closure of the TV channel, which, in their opinion, is engaged in “hidden and overt propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia, an antisocial lifestyle, and also numerous vices” (see “Vremya Novostei” of March 21) . Bishop Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of ROSHVE, member of the Public Chamber and the Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organizations, has more than once spoken of “2x2” products as a collection of all possible sins. “What remains on the broadcast schedule of this TV channel many times overshadows in depth of abomination and volume of vice what was banned. At least 80% of the content of this channel, in our opinion, should be prohibited,” says an open appeal issued by ROSKHVE on September 3, signed by Ryakhovsky’s deputy, Konstantin Bendas.

The series “South Park” received special analysis, which, according to the author of the appeal, is nothing more than direct propaganda of drugs, sexual perversion, blasphemy, debauchery, violence, violations of public order, religious and ethnic hatred and other crimes and vices . Moreover, the authors of the series managed to offend the religious feelings of representatives of almost all world religions: Christians, Muslims and Jews. “We are deeply convinced that for broadcasting such “art”, the management of the editorial board of the television programs “Television Channel “2x2” and CJSC “Telechannel “2x2” should be held criminally liable and sit in prison, and for a long time,” sums up Mr. Bendas. — How much cleaner would it be to breathe in our homeland if the entire leadership of the television program “TV Channel “2x2”, on their own initiative, voluntarily emigrated in full force somewhere to a desert island and there indulged in their disgusting pleasures, far from decent people, and did not get dirty with them information space!

The decision of the Moscow prosecutor's office was positively received not only by the leaders of the Pentecostal Union, but also by the hierarchs of the more traditional Russian confession. “It’s great that the law has finally begun to act against distributors of television materials that offend holy places, as well as the religious and national feelings of people,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the department for external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, told the Interfax-religion agency.

The management of “2x2”, as one would expect, declares its disagreement with the claims of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office. Thus, the general director of the channel, Roman Sarkisov, said that no official documents were received from him, and therefore the “2x2” broadcasting grid will not change. Including the ill-fated “South Park” that will remain on the air (at least for now). Earlier, representatives of the channel, responding to criticism, said that the cartoons they broadcast are not intended for children, but for an adult audience “from 20 and older.” Moreover, the managers of “2x2” emphasized that the “adultness” of cartoon production is expressed not in some obscenity, but in black humor, which is present in abundance in cartoons. “The message from the Prosecutor General’s Office clearly states that we show cartoons for children. I don’t understand how long it should take to debunk this myth,” Mr. Sarkisov said yesterday. “We have been talking about this since the opening of the channel: cartoons are not only for children.”

Mikhail MOSHKIN