On December, 25th, 2009, the Kiev District Administrative Court rejected as a whole claim requirements of Open Company “Free Media Ukraine of GmbH” – the owner of the daily newspaper "Blik" who tried to appeal against a judicial order on the decision of the National Commission of Experts of Ukraine on Protection of Public Morals. In October of the last year the National Commission by its decision recognized a number of publications in several issues of this newspaper such that have erotic, pornographic character and offend religious feelings of believers.
In the course of judicial session the head of the Secretary of the Supreme Archbishop of the USCCh archpriest Oleksa Petriv informed the court on the broken right of believers to the information field, free from materials which humiliate honor, offend their religious feelings and pose threat to physical, intellectual, moral and psychological condition of the population. The USCCh exercised its right and entered the case in quality of the third party which does not declare independent requirements about the dispute.
The essence of the matter consisted that at carrying out of monitoring of periodic printing editions about conformity to the current legislation about protection of public morals the National Commission of Experts of Ukraine Concerning Protection of Public Morals by the decision № 4 from October, 23rd, 2008, decided to recognize the facsimiles placed in the newspaper "Blik", as the information of: erotic character – in release № 194 (682) for 01.09.2008 and 104 (592) for 14.05.2008 on p. 16; pornographic character – in release № 104 (592) for 14.05.2008 on p. 10 and such which shows disrespect to religious relics and offends religious feelings of believers, – in release № 194 (682) for 01.09.2008 on p. 16.
However, the management of the Open Company “Free Media Ukraine GmbH” rejected charges against the newspaper "Blik" and brought the claim against the National Commission, informs the Institute of Religious Freedom.
It is necessary to remind that the Secretary of the All-Ukraine Council of Churches and Religious Organizations shortly considered at his session this point in question and expressed indignation of the mentioned publications, including violation of religious symbols of Christians all over the world.
As a result the board of judges made the decision about the deviation of claim requirements of the owner of the newspaper "Blik" in full, and by that actually recognized numerous infringement of the newspaper of the legislation of Ukraine about protection of public morals.
Making comments on the given decision, the representative of the USCCh, archpriest Oleksa Petriv noted, “The court decision on this case which got a public resonance, has shown that in Ukraine there is an impartial justice – as all process passed under biased "attention" of mass media (as well as the whole present activity of the National Commission of Experts on Protection of Public Morals) – and made us hope that in the future all of us by joint efforts could protect spiritually-moral bases of our Ukrainian society from destructive influence of immorality, lack of culture, unlimited consumption and hedonism.
Let us notice that the newspaper "Blik" trampling on public morals recently published the interview with Ukrainians who converted to Islam. According to the interviewers, the newspaper represented their words in its own fashion, having shown Ukrainians as "traitresses".
By IRS
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