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Plzeň - European Capital of Cultural Censorship

8. 6. 2010 / Milan Kohout

As could be seen in the media on Friday, June 4th, Plzeň's local council decided that the organizer of the Anonynmous Performance festival, Michal Krisl, has to give back 2500 Czech crowns from the grant given to the event -- and on top of that the regional council cancelled an already approved grant of 15 thousand crowns. The decision came evidently from the complaint initiated by Mr Radkovský, who was outraged at the performance done in the Plzeň Cathedral, which pointed to the scandals propagated in the media, involving the abuse of thosands of Catholic children by priests all over the world. The council clearly looked for some loophole in the contract with the festival's organizers and found one sentence that somehow states that all performances from the festival should be played in "public places" (paradoxically the organization called Catholic Church says its buildings, called churches, as "always open" to the public.

A Czech version of this article is in CLICK HERE

I consider the decision from both cultural regulating organs from Plzeň as blunt and sure artistic censorship.

In Mr Radkovský's letter (whose position is called Bishop by that religious organization), sent to the media and to the city's cultural organs, we find, among other things, sentences like "I regret that such kind of culture got financial support". That definition is reminiscent of the communist rhetorics during the time of the judicial process against the rock band Plastic People of the Universe in the 1970s, when there was heavy censorship against artistic expressions.

How is it possible that Mr Radkovský forgot so fast that even his organization was criticized by that era's media in a similar way? He forgot rather fast that healthy democratic societies produce free and uncensored artistic acts of any "type" whatsoever? The whole episode of censorship clearly exposes the connection of interests between a private organization (in this case called Catholic Church) and what is supposed to be indenpendent city and regional public entities.

Even though Plzeň is a candidate for the title of European Culture Capital, it comes to my mind that, after this episode, it should become the European Capital of Cultural Censorship...

Vytisknout

Obsah vydání | Pondělí 2.8. 2010