The mouse that roared

'Mickey Mouse' art control. Mickey Mouse as a biblical character is offensive to some Christians, no doubt. So Russian authorities used a "hate speech" law to punish the exhibitors.
This controversy has a lot in common with the Mohammed cartoons uproar.

All I can say is that free people don't need governments to protect them from expression deemed by some to be offensive.

Well I can also say that there is something funny about a government slip-sliding back toward communistic controls being terribly concerned with safeguarding religious feelings. I smell a rat.

Anyway, here is an excerpt of a report from the International Freedom of Information Exchange and the group Article 19:

12 July 2010 - Two Russian art curators, Andrei Yerofeev and Yuri Samodurov, who staged an exhibition titled "Forbidden Art 2006" featuring censored Soviet and post-Soviet art works, were today convicted by a Moscow court for "inciting hatred or enmity" and "denigration of human dignity." ARTICLE 19 condemns the fines the two men received as an outright attack on the right to freedom of expression.

"Forbidden Art 2006" brought together a number of censored art works from well-known contemporary artists in Russia, and included a piece that depicted Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ in paintings portraying scenes from the Bible. On 12 July 2010, Yuri Samodurov was sentenced to a fine of 200.000 RUB (approximately 4320 GBP) and Andrei Yerofeev received a fine of 150.000 (approximately 3240 GBP).

The prosecution claimed that Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev, then head of the department for contemporary art at the State Tretyakov Gallery, had arranged the exhibition in such a way that it incited enmity and hatred and also denigrated the dignity of Christian groups, in particular Orthodox Christians.

"This guilty verdict against Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev is an attack on the right to freedom of expression, of which freedom of art is an integral part. Today's decision sends a strong message to the art community in Russia: don't mix art with religion," said Dr Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19.

Read the full report here:
http://info.ifex.org/View.aspx?id=214413&q=221181140&qz=64aee8