Government structures and Ukrainian TV channels have agreed to protect society’s morals and not allow the heating up of inter-confessional conflicts

On March 19, 2009, a charter about partnership regarding the right to and freedom of information and the defense of public morals was promulgated. It was signed by Vice-Premier Minister of Ukraine I. Vasyunyk and the heads of the National Council on Matters of Television and Radio Broadcast, National Expert Commission on Matters of Defense of Public Morals, tNational Television Company of Ukraine, and a number of leading TV channels, in particular: Channel 5, ICTV, the Teleodyn company (M1, M2-Estrada), TRK Ukraine, 1+1, M1, TET, TRK Era, and the New Channel. The Institute of Religious Freedom of the city of Kyiv reported about this. Commenting on the event, Vice-Premier Minister of Ukraine Ivan Vasyunyk declared that this document was the result of the work of partners, the public authorities and the leaders of the broadcasting companies. In his words, the issue is not the introduction of censorship into the information market but about partnership and dialogue, the result of which has to be a certain self-restraint and self-regulation on the part of the mass media in the observation of legislation about public morals. I. Vasyunyk noted that in the informational space of Ukraine there are marked tendencies to the decline of the general moral-ethical level of TV and radio products. There is an increase in the dangerous distribution of materials which offend sacred religious subjects and state symbols, which humiliate the person with national or religious signs, propagate xenophobia, and so on. He also noted that Ukrainian society, as well as the world community, had shown a tendency to the spread of violence, caused by the influence of certain informational products. "We agreed that the mechanism of realization of the points of the charter will be worked out in upcoming days. There is a suggestion on the part of the government that for a few months there will be a transitional period during which government structures will not use harsh measures (against violators of legislation regarding public morals), but only will inform the TV channels that they have time to remove them,” the Vice-Premier Minister noted. The signers of the charter declare their readiness to assist in creating conditions for the harmonious development of young people and not allowing negative influences in the forming of the young generation on the part of the mass media. The text of the charter notes «the necessity of not allowing displays of disrespect to the constitutional rights of the person, national and religious sacred objects, the national dignity of man and the spread of xenophobia, Ukrainian-phobia and anti-Semitism, racism, pornography and the propagation of violence, heating up inter-regional, inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflicts, and the growth of the amount of other violations of legislation in the field of the defense of public morals.» The charter remains open for additional signers. We recall that on December 16, 2008, the National Expert Commission of Ukraine on Matters of Defense of Public Morals and the All Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations approved a joint address to state and civic organizations, the mass media, and all citizens of Ukraine, and also signed a memorandum on cooperation in the area of the defense of public morals in Ukraine.

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Translated by the Information Department of the UGCC