Russia Outlaws Rude
Words
2-5-3
- MOSCOW (Reuters) -
Russia's parliament has given final approval to a law banning the use of
foreign or offensive words, which have been used by President Vladimir
Putin and other politicians to spice up public addresses.
-
- The State Duma lower house overwhelmingly approved a
bill entrenching Russian as the "state language" and barring
"offensive", "obscene" and "vulgar" words. Foreign words are also
outlawed when Russian-language equivalents exist.
-
- The legislation provided no specific penalties for
offenders and will probably have little effect on the tendency of public
figures to use off-colour phrases, mostly to their advantage.
-
- Putin launched a 1999 drive against Chechen rebels by
vowing to "wipe them out in the shithouse". He then chose not to
campaign in the 2000 election he easily won, saying he would not treat
politics like trying to sell "Snickers and Tampax".
-
- Allegations of Russian atrocities in Muslim Chechnya
again prompted him to tell a French journalist last November that anyone
wishing to become a Muslim extremist could undergo circumcision in
Moscow "in such a way that nothing grows back".
-
- Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a deputy
speaker of the Duma, also resorts to off-colour expressions and was seen
on television last week denouncing U.S. policy in Iraq -- with much of
his remarks blotted out.
-
- Deputies rejected a proposal by the liberal Yabloko
group to remove Zhirinovsky from his post as a result of his
outburst.
-
- They also easily persuaded liberals to drop
suggestions that the law would impinge on press freedom by outlawing
feature films where dialogue included unrefined, countryside
speech.
-
- Nikolai Gubenko, a former culture minister, said no
ban would apply if the terms were "part of the creative
process".
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The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
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