Duma deputies say planning law to shut TV to foreigners making anti-Russian statements
MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax) - Four State Duma deputies have warned that they will soon come up with a bill to forbid federal television channels that are owned, co-owned or supported by the state to give the floor to foreigners who have supposedly been making anti-Russian statements.
The four lawmakers, who represent all four political groups in Russia's lower house of parliament, issued their warning in a letter to high-profile Russian television journalist Vladimir Pozner in which they accused him of an anti-Russian line.
One of the authors of the letter, United Russia member Mikhail Starshinov, first deputy chairman of the Committee on Nationalities, told Interfax the letter was a response to Pozner's comments on a draft law designed as retaliation for a U.S. bill that, if signed by President Barack Obama into law, would impose visa and financial sanctions on Russian officials blamed for the allegedly unlawful prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for British investment fund Hermitage Capital, and for his death in a Moscow detention center in November 2009.
Among other things, the Russian bill, which has been passed by both houses of parliament and put before President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law, would forbid Americans to adopt Russian children.
"In one of your recent programs, you said that State Duma deputies make a laughing stock of the country. You called the supreme legislative body of the country 'Dura' [a Russian word for 'stupid woman']. You claimed that this was a slip of the tongue. But the content and tone of your statements make us question the sincerity of those explanations," the four deputies said in their letter to Pozner, who has his own program on First Channel.
Besides Starshinov, the letter bore the signatures of Liberal Democrat Andrei Lugovoi, Communist Oleg Denisenko - both of whom are deputy chairs of the Committee on Security and the Prevention of Corruption, and A Just Russia member Igor Zotov, a member of the Committee on Defense.
The four lawmakers suggested that state-owned, co-owned or supported federal television channels should be closed to foreigners who seek to discredit Russia and its state system.
"Very soon we will introduce a draft law to that effect to the Duma. And you, Mr. Pozner, if you have so little respect for our country, will have enough time to find work from your American or French counterparts," they said, pointing out that Pozner is a citizen of Russia, the United States and France.
They expressed surprise that Pozner does not have any such "slips of the tongue" in speaking about the country of his "native language."
"You have said repeatedly that you consider yourself to be a citizen of the world. That Paris is your home city. That you would never have lived in Russia if you hadn't been given a job on television here," they said.
They also accused Pozner of poor knowledge of Russian culture and literature. "It doesn't mean anything to you to mention Nikolai Gogol's 'sergeant's widow' and attribute the authorship of this character to another great Russian writer, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin," the deputies said.
They pointed out that First Channel receives some of its funding from Russian taxpayers. "In effect, you are paid what is the people's money. But in the meantime, you don't care a hoot about the opinions of citizens of Russia! You think you can publicly insult the supreme legislative body of the nation, which has been elected by the people," they said.
"We State Duma deputies, who represent the interests of our voters, consider this behavior intolerable and insulting! By insulting the Russian parliament, you are discrediting the state system of the country of which you are a citizen," the lawmakers said.
They claimed that they respected the right of each citizen to free speech and that they supported journalists' freedom and independence. However, according to them, Pozner abuses these principles.
"We are not suggesting that you give up you Russian citizenship. Nor are we suggesting that you forget your 'French extraction' or 'American citizenship.' But we urge you to be an honest and decent citizen of the country where you live and work. The country that pays you generously for your work," they said.
