To the Big Jury of Journalist Union of Russia

We, male and female representatives of creative and social organizations, appeal to the journalist court of honour - To the Big Jury of Journalist Union of Russia, and ask it to consider our claims to Michail Shvidkoy, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, the presenter of the TV-program "Cultural Revolution", concerning the program "Only a man can create a masterpiece". We, as well as many TV-viewers, highly appreciate the work of the TV-channel "Culture" as a whole. The more it hurts to watch the program, stating gender discrimination and provoking aggression towards women.

Publications and topics, containing offences of women and openly discriminative statements, are not seldom, unfortunately, in modern Russian mass media. It is a pity, that this shameful occurrence still has not been estimated by the professionals (for comparison, nationalistic and racial statements in the mass media cause immediate reaction). As a rule, the main source of sexist statements is the gutter press. The discriminative program, full of offences, on the state TV-channel, with the Minister of Culture as its presenter, seems a disturbing symptom to us. The problem is not only that humiliating and wittingly lying statements concerning women psychology and physiology, were spread all over the country (the experts' views of the problem will be expressed separately). It is odd, that a state official practically supported the idea of gender discrimination, which conflicts not only with the current Constitution (article 19, paragraph 3), but with the principles of civilized society.

We consider any discrimination and aggression in the mass media inadmissible. We believe that professional community of journalists is able to work out some ways to prevent it. Journalists court of honour is one of them. That is why we address to the Big Jury of Journalist Union of Russia and ask it to consider such intolerable occurrence as humiliation and discrimination of women in the mass media. We believe that it will help not only the future development of the TV-channel "Culture", but our social health as well.

Nowadays, the appeal has been signed by more than 100 people. You may get acquainted with the list of signatures at the portal "Woman and society": http://www.owl.ru in a section "Forum".