Russia: Authorities Close Volgograd Paper Over Religious Cartoon

by Claire Bigg

The 9 February issue of "Gorodskiye vesti" featured the cartoon (ITAR-TASS)

Authorities in the southern Russian city of Volgograd announced today that they are shutting down the publication of a local newspaper, "Gorodskiye vesti" (City News) for publishing a cartoon on 9 February depicting Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, and the Prophet Muhammad. The decision came in response to a complaint lodged with the local prosecutor's office by the regional branch of the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party, which called the drawing offensive. Many, however, say the cartoon was harmless and accuse Volgograd's Unified Russia branch of staging a publicity stunt.

MOSCOW, 17 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Volgograd acting Mayor Andrei Doronin told a news conference today that the closure of Volgograd-Inform, the city-owned publisher of "Gorodskiye vesti," was intended to prevent incitement of religious hatred and halt what he called "abuse of media freedom."

Sergei Vovchenko, a Unified Russia spokesman in Volgograd, told RFE/RL that the party decided to take action after receiving hundreds of calls complaining about the cartoon. He insisted that the party had no political motives for filing the complaint and was not responsible for the countrywide scandal it had triggered.

"Several parties and social organizations in Volgograd simply expressed doubts about this publication," Vovchenko said. "This is why a request was sent to the prosecutor's office. We simply wanted to make sure the legislation was being respected. No news sensation was created around this; others created it. We did not seek to stir up any scandal; on the contrary. On the second day of these events, on 10 February, a press conference about these events was canceled."

The federal prosecutor's office was quick to react to Unified Russia's complaint. Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolai Shepel said on 15 February that investigators had been sent from his office to Volgograd to determine whether the newspaper was guilty of inciting religious hatred. He said in televised remarks that free speech was no excuse for insulting the feeling of religious believers.

Call For Peace

"Gorodskiye vesti" published the cartoon on 9 February as an illustration to an article titled "Racists Have No Room In The Government." It shows Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, and Muhammad watching on television two groups of people about to engage in a fistfight. The caption, representing the thoughts of the assembled religious figures, reads: "We did not teach you that."

"The caption in this drawing is very noble: 'let's live in peace.' This drawing is not a caricature, it's a highly artistic work, and many agree with me on this. I think that the Unified Russia party is meddling."

Recent weeks have seen violent demonstrations across the Arab and Muslim world to protest the recent publications in European newspapers of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The drawings -- one of which represents Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban -- were first published in Denmark in September.

The editor in chief of "Gorodskiye vesti," Tatyana Kaminskaya, said, however, the cartoon published in her newspaper was a call for peace and could not have caused offense. None of Volgograd's religious communities, she said, has complained about it.

Small-Town Politics

Many observers have reacted with dismay at Unified Russia's denunciation of the cartoon and at the subsequent crackdown on "Gorodskiye vesti." Mikhail Melnikov, an analyst at the Center of Journalism in Extreme Situations in Moscow, sees nothing offensive in the cartoon -- on the contrary.

"What do they [prosecutors] want to investigate? I really don't know," Melnikov said. "The caption in this drawing is very noble: 'let's live in peace.' This drawing is not a caricature, it's a highly artistic work, and many agree with me on this. I think that the Unified Russia party is meddling. I don't see anything rational here, it is some kind of small-town fight for influence."

Igor Yakovenko, the deputy head of the Russian Union of Journalists, called the closure of the newspaper a "disgrace for Russia" and accused federal authorities of pressuring the Volgograd administration into shutting it down.

The managing editor of “France Soir” was fired for publishing the original Danish cartoons (epa)

The position of the Volgograd city administration has been ambiguous. Speaking to RFE/RL, Volgograd Deputy Mayor Konstantin Kalachyov defended the cartoon and joined the chorus of accusations against Unified Russia's regional branch.

"The nature of the drawing is peaceful and positive," Kalachyov said. "All the rest is political insinuation, and it seems to me that the scandal has been whipped up out of nothing. In my opinion, people's feelings are much more insulted by things such as the control of documents on the basis of non-Slavic appearance. The publication could have gone totally unnoticed had Volgograd's Unified Russia not stirred up a scandal."

Kalachyov, however, said acting Mayor Doronin believed that the newspaper had to be shut down because it had acquired a "scandalous reputation."

So what might have prompted Unified Russia in Volgograd to whip up such a scandal? Some observers have suggested that the attack on "Gorodskiye vesti" may have been a result of infighting between the Volgograd branch of Unified Russia and the city administration, which owns the newspaper. .

But Andrei Serenko, a journalist based in Volgograd, dismissed this theory. According to him, relations between the party and the mayor's office, although once rocky, have recently been on the mend. Volgograd's Unified Russia, he said, simply hoped to boost its plummeting regional ratings.

"In Volgograd, this party has been very steadily losing popularity over the past year," Serenko said. "According to Volgograd's sociologists, who are constantly carrying out polls in the region, Unified Russia is consistently losing about 1 [percentage point] every month in Volgograd. So Unified Russia started whipping up this story which, in the eyes of its PR specialist, fitted in the information context: 'Now all the media are talking about this cartoon scandal [in Denmark], so let's create our own and advertise ourselves through this scandal.'"

Serenko, however, said the closure of the newspaper is likely to be a merely symbolic punishment, since "Gorodskiye vesti" had long been slated for reorganization. Volgograd-Inform was being liquidated and the newspaper was slated to close down before immediately reopening as a new juridical entity, owned as before by the city administration.

Serenko therefore predicted that the newspaper will soon reappear, although possibly under a different name.

If this is the case, then all parties will be winners. Unified Russia in Volgograd will have grabbed attention, religious groups possibly offended by the cartoon will have been appeased, and the editorial team of "Gorodskiye vesti" will continue working.

The scandal, however, will have made one victim. Tatyana Kaminskaya said she has already been told she will not be hired as editor in chief in the city administration's new daily.