UOC priest: I can’t wait till media defamation is punished at least somehow

Cleric of the Boryspil Eparchy of the UOC, Archpriest Alexander Klimenko. Photo: pravlife.org

On May 29, 2020, a cleric of the Boryspil Eparchy of the UOC, Archpriest Alexander Klimenko, posted a comment on his Facebook page about another “Channel 5” slander against the clergyman and the entire Church. Archpriest Alexander drew public attention to the fact that the slander of biased media regularly goes unpunished.

The reason for the publication of the cleric of the UOC was the material “Channel 5” “The Kremlin project ‘Reconciliation’: How the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine who singsnabout the ‘brotherhood’ met with a curator from the Russian Federation”. In their article, journalists of this media outlet quoted Alexander Kovalenko, a staff member of the Odessa Courier online publication, who called Boris Korchevnikov, Director of the Orthodox Spas television channel, a “curator from Russia”.

The staff workers of these 2 media outlets accused the UOC of organizing "a whole series of operations, including an overt terrorist attack during the religious festivities, the aim of which was to infect parishioners on Palm Sunday and Easter as much as possible" and stated that the ‘Reconciliation’ project is aimed to split the society."

“I cannot wait till there is at least some responsibility for false or unverified information in the media. Until then, anyone can write whatever absurdities,” Archpriest Alexander commented on these statements. “By the way, in the above case they directly call me a link in the new hybrid project of the Russian Federation and claim that I even have a curator. They make indirect claims that I am a hybrid officer in a cassock, etc. .... As always, they do not have a single fact, only assumptions."

The clergyman emphasized that slander against him is only a small part of the stuffing, the purpose of which is to incite sectarian hatred.

“Regretfully, in our country one can be engaged in defamation, working for a television channel or any other information resource, without any fear of punishment,” Archpriest Alexander emphasized.

Earlier, Metropolitan Paul, the abbot of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, filed a lawsuit against Channel 5 in connection with the dissemination of fake information that he had allegedly called on the flock to come to the church during the exacerbation of coronavirus in Ukraine.

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