(Moscow) An episode of the cartoon comedy South Park has been labeled as extremist by Russian prosecutors, who have issued a warning to the Russian TV station that broadcast it.
The Prosecutor General’s Office did not identify which episode its investigators found objectionable, but said it “offends the honor and dignity of Christians and Muslims and insults the feelings of believers irrespective of their faith.”
Prosecutors issued the warning to private TV channel 2×2, which aired the episode on Jan. 9, and said they had appealed to a Moscow court to declare the episode extremist.
The all-cartoon 2×2 channel has received similar warnings in recent months about other animated series, leading to some media speculation that it may be the target of a takeover attempt. Corrupt Russian law enforcement officials are often used to force a change in company ownership.
Representatives of 2×2 could not be reached for comment Monday evening. General director Roman Sarkisov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying he would defend the channel in court.
South Park’s creators, who have also made a feature-length movie, routinely take satirical jabs at politicians, celebrities, religion and sexuality. With heavy parody and scatological humor, the made-for-adults program follows a group of children living in a fictional U.S. town.
Russian prosecutors opened their investigation into the South Park episode after receiving complaints from Russian Protestant leaders, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
RIA-Novosti quoted the head of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians, Konstantin Bendas, as saying prosecutors should ban the South Park cartoons on the grounds that they contain “covert and overt propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia as norms of sexual life.”
Earlier this year, some Russian Protestant leaders asked for the channel’s broadcasting license to be revoked, the agency said.
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