Most Russians favor television censorship

MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - A survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Poll Center has revealed that most Russians (82 percent) favor social censorship on the television. The number of its advocates grew markedly over the last year, from 63% to 82%, including the ratio 35% to 47% regarding unconditional supporters. Concurrently, the number of those who disapprove of censorship has gone down from 29% to 16%. There is the belief that censorship is required above all for sex- and violence-filled scenes. Thus, 57 percent of the respondents reject open sexual scenes and 49 percent want no violence and cruelty on the TV.

Respondents note the necessity of restricting the advertising of doubtful commodities and services (30%) and goods for intimate use (24%) as well as movies popularizing criminals' lifestyle (24%)

Every seventh Russian citizen draws attention to the inadmissibility of using rude words on the television and to the immoral nature of programs like the talk-show "Windows" and the reality-shows "Home-2", "Behind the glass", "Big brother", etc.

People seem to worry less about vulgar sketches, indulgence in the detailed description of catastrophes and acts of terrorism as well as the coverage of one's private life without one's permit (4-8%).

There are few cases when the polled point to the necessity of censorship of children's and educational programs (2%) and political plots (1%)

Women more often than men demand censorship in application to scenes of sexual character (63% and 49%), violence and cruelty (52% and 47%). Intolerance of such scenes grows with age: from 41% in the 18-to-24 age bracket to 70% among those above 60; as to scenes of violence, this ratio is 45% to 55%/

This public opinion poll was conducted on June 4-5, 2005 among 1,561 people in 153 settlements, 46 regions of Russia, with a statistical error not exceeding 3.4 percent.