No Supreme Court review of ban on Jehovah's Witnesses magazines in Russia

by AndersonsInfo 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  AndersonsInfo

  http://rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20121029/265164439.html

  News

  No Supreme Court review of ban on Jehovah's Witnesses magazines in Russia

  Context

  • Ban on Jehovah's Witnesses magazines validated
  • Jehovah's Witnesses magazines ban challenged by distributor
  • Watchdog's ban on distributing Jehovah's Witnesses magazines affirmed

  © Tags: Telecommunications, Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals, Russia, Moscow 13:18 29/10/2012

  MOSCOW, October 29 - RAPSI. The Supreme Commercial Court will not be reviewing the lower court's ruling prohibiting the distribution of two Jehovah's Witnesses magazines, The Watchtower and Awake!, the court's spokesperson told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Monday.

  On April 6, 2010, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) annulled the permission to distribute the aforementioned magazines in Russia issued in 1997 by the state committee for press after some of the content was declared extremist.

  In February, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the federal service's ban on publishing and distributing the magazines.

  The court thus dismissed the appeal filed by Wachtturm Bibel- und Traktat-Gesellschaft, Deutscher Zweig, e.V, the legal entity which holds the license to the magazines, and the Jehovah's Witnesses administrative center responsible for their distribution.

  The religious organization requested to reconsider the ruling, but the Supreme Commercial Court found no grounds for this.

  The Roskomnadzor representative said that the organization is carrying outs its activity outside Russia and it is not subject to Russian laws regulating the enterprises activity.

  Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization. Many traditional religions believe it to be a pseudo-Christian sect. Its management center in Russia is located in St. Petersburg. Its activities are forbidden in China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and a number of other countries.

  According to the organization, it had seven million members as of August 2009.

  In June 2010, the European Court of Human Rights declared a Russian court's ruling to dissolve the Jehovah's Witnesses religious community in Moscow illegal and ordered Russia to pay 70,000 euros in compensation to the aggrieved party.
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  tresdecu

  Hopefully the supreme court will review the paragraph calling former JWs "Mentally Diseased" ...I would think that might clinch it. ;-)
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  blondie

  Actually they should review the paragraphs that say that God through Jesus will soon destroy all the nations.

  *** w08 1/1 p.6 ***

  God's Kingdom will put an end to all human governments. The prophet Daniel was given a vision in which he saw a succession of world powers, stretching down through history into our own time. Notice the thrilling climax to that vision: “In the days of those [final human] kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” So all the kingdoms, or governments, of this world—with their wars, oppression, and corruption—will be destroyed forever. As Daniel’s prophecy shows, God’s Kingdom will soon rule over the whole earth. (Daniel 2:44, 45) A concrete reality, it will remain the only government in existence.

  *** w04 2/1 p. 17 par. 17 ***

  In the model prayer, Jesus puts things in their proper perspective. Our prime concern should be the sanctification of Jehovah’s great and holy name. Since the instrument for accomplishing this is the Messianic Kingdom, we pray for the Kingdom to come to destroy all imperfect human kingdoms, or governments, and to ensure that God’s will takes place fully as in heaven also upon earth.
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  blondie

  *** jv chap. 30 pp. 693-694 ‘Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News’ ***

  On Sunday morning, October 7, 1934, at nine o’clock, every group of Witnesses in Germany assembled. They prayed for Jehovah’s guidance and blessing. Then each group sent a letter to German government officials declaring their firm determination to keep on serving Jehovah. Before dismissing, they discussed together the words of their Lord, Jesus Christ, at Matthew 10:16-24. After this they went out to give a witness to their neighbors about Jehovah and his Kingdom under Christ.

  That same day, Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the earth met and, after united prayer to Jehovah, sent a cablegram warning the Hitler government: “Your ill-treatment of Jehovah’s witnesses shocks all good people of earth and dishonors God’s name. Refrain from further persecuting Jehovah’s witnesses; otherwise God will destroy you and your national party.” But that was not the end of it.

  *** w92 3/15 p. 6 What God’s Kingdom Can Mean to You ***

  What are lovers of God requesting when they pray for his Kingdom to come? They are actually asking that the heavenly Kingdom take decisive action by destroying man-made governmental systems that have failed to live up to their promise of bringing about true peace and prosperity. Pointing to this development, the prophet Daniel wrote: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:44) When would this happen?

  Jesus foretold that this would take place within the generation of those who would witness an extraordinary upheaval in human affairs.

  *** w83 5/15 pp. 8-9 What Will God’s Kingdom Do? ***

  The Bible leaves us in no doubt as to the answer. In a prophecy that points forward to our day, the Bible says: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom [this is God’s Kingdom, for which Christians pray] that will never be brought to ruin. . . .

  It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms [present governments of the world], and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”—Daniel 2:44.

  Think about that! God’s Kingdom is going to destroy all present governments of the world. And when you pray, “Thy kingdom come,” you are praying for this to happen. Yet surely such a change is needed. Never in history has a human government been completely satisfactory. So what could be better than to have a perfect government by God replace all human governments!
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  Aussie Oz

  I guess the Russians believe that just because something can be said does not mean it should be said.

  And lo! The WT and Awake! do not have the right in Russia to say whatever the crap they want and get away with it.

  Oz
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  Phizzy

  Gratifying for us XJW's I guess, we like to see any set back that the WT incurs, but I simply hate the idea of suppression of free speech. If the WT is guilty of hate speech then show where, and ban those individual mags or books, but still allow them to publish within normal guidelines.

  The Russian regime is a totalitarian one still, and cannot bear the thought of the free flow of ideas as in the free lands, but if you want and cherish that free flow, you have to allow loonies like the WT to publish too.
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  besty

  the Watchtower Society will use this type of pretext to move more and more publishing online

  the Internet is more like the radio broadcasts they used to do than hardcopy magazines delivered individually

  unlike radio or paper the Internet allows for everybody to have their say - our job is to make it easy to find.
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  Band on the Run

  I think Russia is lawless. Today it is Jehovah's Witnesses. I find it hard to summon any other than intellectual sympathy. Tomorrow it may very well be fundamentalists Baptists or Pentecostals. Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterian-the mainstream churches from Western Europe. It is a very slipperly slope. If I were Russian, I would defend the Witnesses. The power of the Orthodox Church, a church that fought the Communists with dignity and power, is scary.

  I imagine that Russia has freedom of religion enshrined in their Constitution. Maoist China had a freedom of religion provision. Such provisions are only as potent as they are enforced in routine life. I don't know how any American, Brit, any common law or western civil law can rejoice over this decision. Due process is as important as the substantive right.

  True, Jehovah's Witnesses ignite little sympathy. They are seen as fools. In a broader context, this ruling is very dangerous. It is a good signal that the Iron Curtain is active being constructed yet again.

  I would rather have a brain washed religion than no religion at all or govt. deciding what can be a religion. Only a short while ago, The Orthodox Church was forbidden. It reminds me of the WHO song, the parting on the left is now the parting on the right.....I get on my knees and pray we don't get fooled again. I hated the song when it was released. Sadly, now I see its power.