We are waiting for Ministry of Culture in court! – UOJ statement

Head of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture Andrey Yurash

On March 29, 2018, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine published a statement on "confrontational rhetoric in publications on the site of the Union of Orthodox Journalists" on its official website. The UOJ is flattered to receive close attention from the authorities, but the Editorial board considers it necessary to state the following.

These days in the village of Ptichya of the Rivne region, lawlessness is going on. Ignoring the court's decision, representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate, caressed by the Ministry of Culture, as usual with the help of radical militants, seized a temple of the UOC community.

As dozens of times before, the Minister of Culture Yevgeny Nishchuk, the Director of the Department for Religions of the Ministry of Culture Andrey Yurash and other officials of the "cultural" department did not notice either "confrontational rhetoric" or any discriminatory actions on the part of representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate. In the opinion of the officials, it is not they who instigate strife by seizing temples and promising to "burn Moscow priests", but journalists who talk about this lawlessness to Ukrainians.

The UOJ staff is aware that the statement of the Ministry of Culture to the editorial staff is another attempt to drown out the voice of unwanted media. However, we must reassure Messrs. Nishchuk and Yurash: our site has covered, covers and will continue to cover everything that happens in the religious sphere of Ukraine. And do it objectively: we will call the force attacks on temples not "transfers of communities to another jurisdiction" but seizures, big men with clubs – not "patriotically-minded parishioners" but church raiders, the policy of the Ministry of Culture – not ensuring interfaith peace, but discrimination against the largest religious denomination of Ukraine and infringement of the rights of believers.

As for the attention of the Ministry of Culture to the UOJ, we remind: since October 2017, a civil claim of the UOJ to the Ministry of Culture on the protection of business reputation and the refutation of inaccurate information disseminated by Andrey Yurash has been before the Prilutsk City-District Court. For five months, representatives of the Ministry have never attended the court sessions. Come and say in the face of the law who really incites religious enmity in the country.

We are waiting for you in court!

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