UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT EXPLAINS TO CLERICS WHY NATIONAL COMMISSION ON ISSUES OF MORALITY WAS ABOLISHED
Portal-credo.ru, 18 February 2015
The Ukrainian National Commission on Issues of Protecting Public Morality was abolished because it had discredited itself. This was declared by President Petro Poroshenko on 17 February at a meeting with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, the president's press service reports.
"The president noted that society must have reliable protection from things that destroy public morals, but this ought not to be done by a state bureaucratic body that has discredited itself," the report says.
As is known, previously representatives of the council of churches, of which the UPTsKP is now the presiding agency, spoke out against the abolition of the commission.
On 10 February, the Supreme Soviet adopted a decision for depriving the national commission on morals of its authorization and initiated the process for its elimination.
The commission was notorious for its attempts
to forbid cartoons, books, and other cultural elements in which it
found "pornography." This was all done at government expense. (tr.
by PDS, posted 18 February 2015)
COUNCIL OF CHURCHES VIEWS NEGATIVELY SUPREME SOVIET'S DECISION TO ELIMINATE COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF PUBLIC MORALITY
Institute of Religious Liberty, 12 February 2015
The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet adopted a law for the liquidation of the National Expert Commission on Issues of Protection of Public Morality. On 10 February, 245 members of parliament voted for this decision, the Institute of Religious Liberty reports.
During the consideration of this issue in parliament's session hall, none of the deputies spoke out against this initiative. Representatives of the parliamentary coalition actively advocated for the elimination of the commission, explaining this by reference to the existence of other governmental bodies in this sphere and the desire to save budgetary funds.
"The liquidation of the National Commission on Issues of Morality also is a requirement of the coalition agreement, and this draft law was introduced in accordance with the request of public organizations, which requested the abolition of this commission as senseless. I want to emphasize that we are not at all talking about the cessation of governmental control for protection of public morality; on the contrary, such governmental control is only strengthened," Olga Chervakov, author of draft law No. 1647, declared from the parliament's rostrum.
By way of contrast, the Chief Scientific Expert Board of the Supreme Soviet noted that this law contains "risks of extreme liberalization of the circulation and distribution in Ukrainian society of productions of a sexual or erotic nature, as well as productions containing propaganda of the cult of violence, cruelty, pornography, etc."
In sum, the law on elimination of the National Expert Commission on Issues of Protection of Public Morality was supported by 104 deputies from the fraction Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, 42 votes from the National Front, 25 from Self-Help, 20 from Opposition Bloc, 18 from the Radical Party of O. Liashk, 13 from Fatherland, 11 from the group Will of the People, and 12 from unaffiliated deputies.
Only the deputies Pavel Ungurian, Georgy Logvinskii (National Front) and Mikhail Papiev (Opposition Bloc) voted against.
As the Institute of Religious Liberty reported, this law permits the distribution, without the conclusion of the commission, of a production of a sexual or erotic nature, particularly a printed and graphic production. Entertainment events of such a character also will be able to be produced without governmental supervision on the part of the commission.
Also the sale, distribution, and public display in movie theatres and video halls of audio, radio, cinema, and video productions of a sexual nature or with elements of erotica will be permitted without the conclusion of the commission.
In connection with this, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations expressed concern about the lack of a dialogue with the Supreme Soviet on this and other issues. The heads of churches and religious organizations appealed to the parliamentary fractions on the eve of voting, requesting that they not support this draft law in order to conduct a broad public discussion of the advisability of the elimination of the Commission on Issues of the Protection of Public Morality.
Since the deputies ignored this suggestion, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches will ask the Ukrainian president not to rush into signing the law that was passed, in order to conduct a discussion in a round-table format so that it will be possible to take into account the opinion of the general public and not just the media business.
It should be noted that the question of the
elimination of
the National Expert Commission on Issues of the Protection of
Public Morality
was first raised in connection with the so-called
"administrative
reform," which was conducted by the regime of Yanukovich in late
2010.
However the Supreme Soviet of the previous convocation decided
not to adopt
such a decision. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 February 2015)
NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF MORALITY FINDS UPTs CLERIC'S PAMPHLETS CRIMINAL
Religiia v Ukraine, 18 February 2015
The Ukrainian National Expert Commission on Issues of Protection of Public Morality on 17 February published its conclusion regarding the pamphlets "Several words about the church" and "The Kiev patriarchate," which last year were distributed in the center of Vinnitsa by a cleric of the Tulchin and Bratslav diocese of the UPTs of the Moscow patriarchate and evoked discontent among citizens, a correspondent of the portal Religiia v Ukraine reports.
An announcement on the website of the national commission says:
"After reviewing an appeal from law enforcement agencies regarding the compliance of the pamphlets 'Several words about the church' and 'The Kiev patriarchate' with current legislation in the sphere of public morality and the possibility of their circulation on the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Expert Commission on Issues of the Protection of Public Morality adopted the decision whereby the indicated printed productions are recognized as violating the requirements of article 2 of the Ukrainian law 'On protection of public morality.'
"For the purpose of an appropriate legal response and in view of the presence of several signs of the commission of the crime specified by article 161 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (violation of the equality of citizens' rights by virtue of their racial or ethnic identity, religious convictions, disability, and other grounds), the decision of the national commission regarding the pamphlets 'Several words about the church' and 'The Kiev patriarchate,' along with materials of an additional inspection, has been delivered to the prosecutor's office of Vinnitsa province."
It is noteworthy that on the day of the publication of the conclusion of the commission, the chancellor of UPTsMP, Metropolitan Antony, spoke out in front of the Ukrainian president, at a meeting with members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, stating his concern regarding the possible elimination of the National Expert Commission on Issues of Protection of Morality. "We think that there should exist in Ukraine an agency that exercises supervision for the prevention of actions in the public sphere that cause harm to public morals," the metropolitan said in appealing to the president.
We recall that the pamphlets condemning the Kiev patriarchate were distributed in Vinnitsa by Hierodeacon Ioann, a cleric of the Tulchin and Bratslav diocese of UPTsMP, which occupies a part of the Vinnitsa province. The cleric stated that he did this independently and he distributed about 500 copies, at the cathedral and near administrative buildings, the city council, and the provincial state administration.
The Vinnitsa diocese of the UPTs MP distanced itself from the contents of the pamphlets. "The opinion of the author of the articles is not the opinion of the rest. If in the future he distributes such calls, let him not call himself a representative of the church," the press secretary of the Vinnitsa diocese of UPTsMP, Vladislav Demchenko, commented regarding the conflict situation. (tr. by PDS, posted 19 February 2015)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.