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the Head of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine
V.A. Manzhosov.
THE OPEN LETTER
Dear Volodymyr Anatoliyovych!
We, the community of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Canonical, are addressing to you as to the head of the constitutional body, whose aim is to control the compliance with the laws of Ukraine concerning television and radio broadcasting. We are indignant at the persecution of the Orthodox Church in domestic mass media, including TV channels ICTV, TRK KYIV, Novyi Kanal, 1+1, at the dissemination of filthy obscene defamation of the Patriarch of the UAOC-Canonical, Moses (O.I. Koulik) and at the rough hurting of our religious feelings, denigration of our honor and dignity.
The heads of the television and broadcasting companies and the authors of the reportings, using in their venal programs the excogitated, not proved in court facts of the infamous designer case against our spiritual advisor and Teacher, Patriarch Moses, inflamed feud and intolerance towards the faithful of our Church and violated the Article 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Article 4 and 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”, the Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “ On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” and Decision 1 of the plenary meeting of the Supreme Court of Ukraine of 02/27/2009 “On judicial practice at disposal of cases on protection of honor and dignity of the physical entity and business reputation of the legal entity”.
The feelings of all the faithful of the entire Orthodox Church in the world are being insulted by groundlessly charges as regards UAOC-C with actions described in the Article 181 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, naming the divine offices of the Orthodox Church as dissolute, attributing to us the procedure of services of Sunday Adelaja Church, which is absolutely strange to the spirit of the UAOC-C. It is the brutal and open discrimination of the entire Orthodox Church. It is a challenge to the entire Orthodox Church in the world, which ministers the same rite of divine services.
The divine services are being ministered openly in our church, which was built by our own hands. We invite all thirst people to visit it. Also you can watch the videos of our services and sermons at our WEB site www.soborna.org.
Absurdity and impudent cynicism of the materials shown about our Church in the domestic mass media sphere confirm that the programs are designed, well paid for and forged with the aim to discredit the UAOC-C and its Primate. The designed programs at radio stations and TV channels are the part of the large scale brutal campaign against Patriarch Moses and the God’s Church headed by him. One of the initiators of these criminal antichristian actions is the anathematized Filaret (M.A. Denysenko). This campaign has been lasting already for many years, using cynical and amoral methods of influence upon people, poison human souls, infuse them with distrust towards the religious organizations and turn them away from God. It is a crime before the state. It is a crime before the Ukrainian people.
Almost in all the reportings at the TV channels ICTV, TRK KYIV, Novyi Kanal, 1+1, the anathematized bishop Evstratiy Zoria, the spokesman of the UOC-KP gives false information about the activity of the UAOC-C, interferes with its activity, by that forming the negative attitude towards our Church and inflaming the religious feud. Such actions of Evstratiy Zoria are illegal, as they infringe the Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “ On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, which declares: ““A religious organization may neither interfere with the activity of the other religious organizations, nor apply any form of exhortation of hostility and intolerance towards non believers and believers of other confessions".
According to the Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”, one of the essential principles of the state policy concerning television and radio broadcasting is non-admission of regular purposeful fomentation of religious feud in TV and radio programmes. However, the workers of TV channels ICTV, TRK KYIV, Novyi Kanal, 1+1, infringing the Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”, abuse the freedom of activity of television and radio broadcasting companies, propagandize the supremacy of the more numerous religious organization UOC-KP and inferiority of the parishioners of the UAOC-C, disseminate information, which infringes our legal interests, encroaches on our honor and dignity.
The presence of such illegal actions in the mass media sphere of our state is the shameful occurrence. They propagandize amorality and absence of spirituality, lead to further degradation of the society, increasing of the chaos in all the spheres of life in Ukraine.
Corruption flourishes in the country. Today, more than ever, the society needs all the honest journalists to unite, assume the responsibility of eradicating dishonest, unprincipled, those who are in love with money individuals from their ranks. The society needs all the honest journalists to become the real fourth branch of power in the state, to become the barrier, the reef, which will stop the waves of the lawlessness and give the hope for the revival of light and spiritual Ukraine.
In accordance with the Article 21 of the Law of Ukraine “On the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine”, we demand from you to enforce penalties towards the heads of the television and radio broadcasting companies mentioned – the perpetrators of the legislation on television and radio broadcasting, to disprove immediately the false information, to apologize in public before Patriarch Moses and the community of the UAOC-C and not to let the illegal actions in the mass media sphere of Ukraine in future.
Yours sincerely,
the representative of the community of the UAOC-C
Bishop of Zhytomyr, Vicar of Kyiv
Oleksandr (O.M. Negodenko)
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