ICTV program about evangelical Christians

Ukrainian Media Oppresses Christians, Uses Old KGB Methods

The wave of "anti-sectarian hysteria" that swept through Ukraine not long ago gave rise to a storm of indignation among Evangelical Christians of the country, Christian Telegraph reports.

Such influential Ukrainian TV channels as 1+1, STB and ICTV, and popular newspapers such as Delo, Zerkalo Nedeli and Komsomolskaya Pravda conducted a prolonged attack on Alexey Ledyaev, Sunday Adelaja and other well-known Evangelical pastors, equating the Evangelical movement in Ukraine to fascism, the White Brotherhood sect and other non-Christian cults. This groundless attack continued for two weeks.

"These are definitely the same old KGB methods they used to stop people from attending Christian churches in the USSR. What we have now is a shameful violation of the religious freedom of those hundreds of thousands Ukrainians who identify themselves as Evangelicals," said Sergey Velbovets, president of INVICTORY MEDIA and board member of the Novomedia Association of Christian Journalists.

The material below is from one of the programs which equated Evangelical churches with fascists, occult groups and even terrorists (the video below is in the Ukrainian language, but the essence is clear despite translation):

The first to comment on the glaring facts of the defamation and violation of the religious rights of Christians was the Novomedia Association of Christian Journalists, which issued an open announcement to the Ukrainian mass media, journalists, officials, Ukrainian and foreign human rights organizations. The text of the announcement appears below.

Novomedia alert on the "anti-sectarian hysteria" in Ukrainian mass media:

To the attention of mass media, journalists, bodies of state power, Ukrainian and international legal advocacy organizations:

As an association of journalists, publishers and broadcasters, Novomedia feels obligated to express its grave concern about the increasing amount of biased and non-objective review of religious issues in the Ukrainian mass media. We see the new series of material about so-called "new religions" or "sects" on the air of the national television channels (1+1, STB, ICTV and others) and in the pages of the print media ("Dzerkalo tyzhnya", "Delo", "Komsomolska pravda" and others). Virtually all the reporting in these publications and television programs grossly misrepresents the facts about the officially registered Christian protestant churches (Charismatic, Pentecostal, Baptist and others) in Ukraine.

We wish to bring attention to the fact that these organs of the Ukrainian mass media, by disseminating intolerant and unfoundedly negative views, are provoking anti-religious and specifically anti-Evangelical hostility in the society. The employees of these mass media demonstrate not only an abysmal lack of essential knowledge on religious matters, but also a deplorable lack of professional skills and responsibility in their reporting. We also feel it necessary to raise the obvious question of whether the journalists and media organizations are carrying out orders from an outside party interested in slurring the good name of Evangelical churches and of the hundreds of thousands of believers who belong to them.

A few recent cases are particularly egregious. The report of Valentina Dobrota, aired on the 1+1 channel (from October 14 through October 16, 2007), was a prime example of journalistic bias and manipulation. We consider such programs on 1+1 and other Ukrainian TV channels highly offensive to the religious feelings of the Protestant denominations of Ukraine.

Sergey Velbovets, president of INVICTORY MEDIA and board member of the Novomedia Association of Christian Journalists

Among the print media, the series of so called "anti-sectarian" publications in the newspaper "Delo" are literally astonishing examples of biased rhetoric. In these articles journalist Vladislav Pavlov impugns the Evangelical believers as weak, crippled people who are not able to think logically and make right choices in their lives. Pavlov doles out his personal surmises and assumptions as if they were authoritative conclusions obtained through legitimate journalistic investigation. But the conclusions of the real experts and theologians on these issues do not appear in his articles. Pavlov actually mixes up his "facts" about this or that religious denomination, and his analysis of the religious organizations in question is very superficial. All this is abundant evidence that the aim of the series was not impartial review of the activities of Evangelical churches, but a well-planned effort to disseminate of negative stereotypes concerning them, sterotypes which may further the efforts and purposes of some third party.

We would like to lay special emphasis on the fact that the usage of the terms "adept," "sectarians," "destructive cults," "brainwashing," "recruited," and so on are not acceptable to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens who are members of various Evangelical churches. Such inflammatory terms do not have any scientific, historical or religious validity, but are only meant as propaganda to bring about the next division and polarization of our society.

(Record #8, 11/23/2007)

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[01/03/2008]

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