Moscow, February 16, Interfax - The Russian Union of Journalists regards as inappropriate recent remarks and steps by certain government officials and institutions regarding the publication of a cartoon in the Volgograd-based newspaper Gorodskiye vesti.
"These statements and steps violate two fundamental constitutional principles: freedom of the press and the secular nature of our state," the union said in a statement on Thursday.
The document calls for observing the existing law and protests against "attempts to revise it by reinstating elements of censorship."
"The roots of the so-called cartoon war have nothing to do with real feelings of believers and lie exclusively in the political field. We regret that Russia has proven to be the only European country where the government has yielded to provocateurs," the statement says.
Gorodskiye vesti recently published a drawing depicting Christ, Moses, Buddha, and the Prophet Muhammad watching TV, to illustrate an article titled 'Racists Can't Be in the Government'. The TV screen shows two groups of people about to start a fistfight, and the drawing is accompanied by a caption that reads, "We did not teach them that."
A government agency overseeing the observance of law in the media sector reportedly said the newspaper could be subjected to punitive sanctions.
