The television channel "2x2," which airs many popular Western cartoons, such as South Park and The Simpsons, may lose its license following accusations of "extremist" content of some of the series it has been broadcasting. Meanwhile, youths in Moscow and St.Petersburg are staging rallies in support of their favorite channel.

In early September, a Moscow prosecutor's office sent an address to court, demanding that the content of South Park be ruled "extremist" and issued a warning to the channel, referring to experts' evaluation of 12 cartoon series aired by the channel as "promoting violence and pornography." The prosecutor's office ruled that South Park "disgraces Christians and Muslims and is offensive to all believers regardless of their religion, can provoke an ethnic conflict and extremist activities and instigate violence between adherents of different religions." A second warning of this kind would lead to revoking the channel's license, which is already set to formally expire in mid-October.

Meanwhile, the channel shrugs off the accusations. "We haven't violated any law," said Maria Telesheva, the channel's spokesperson. "We air adult content after 11pm, but there isn't anything really graphic - there couldn't possibly be anything graphic in an animation film." Telesheva stressed that 2x2 never positioned itself as a children's channel, nor did it register itself as such. "Our target audience is 14 years old and older, although we do air some animated series for family viewing in the daytime," she said.

The recent campaign against 2x2 has been spearheaded by the Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith, which said in an address quoted by Gazeta.ru that the channel helps to develop "an unequivocally deficient personality inclined to violence, debauchery and immoral actions."

Gazeta.ru quoted Konstantin Bendas, a top official of the religious group and a member of the State Duma's expert council on public and religious associations, as saying that the management of 2x2 should "go to  prison and for a long time."

Meanwhile, observers say that the campaign could actually be masterminded by someone who is after the channel's air frequency. An ad campaign that 2x2 has been running promotes such an argument.

2x2 was launched in April 2007 with plans to expand across the country by October 2008. But within the first year of its operation, the channel got bogged down in trouble with official agencies. In March 2008, Rossvyazokhrankultura, the governmental agency that has the power to withdraw TV channels' licenses, issued a warning to the channel. It accused the animated series, "The Adventures of Big Jeff" and "Happy Tree Friends" of "propagating violence, doing harm to children's physical and mental health, as well as infringing on public morals." Back then, the channel backed down and took the "offensive" series off the air.

Responding to the recent accusations, 2x2 suspended the airing of 12 animated series last week. In addition to South Park, the channel took off the air The Simpsons, The Griffins, and Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl. "The channel disagrees with the experts' decision [on the extremist content of "South Park"] but until the situation is solved, these animated series won't be broadcasted," 2x2 said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the channel encouraged its viewers to openly express its support, which some did. On Sunday, several hundred youths gathered to voice support for their favorite channel in downtown Moscow and St. Petersburg. On Monday, Moscow police detained one of the organizers of a youth rally in support of the channel near Novoslobodskaya metro station, RIA Novosti reported, quoting a police source as saying that the detention was due to the fact the number of participants was several times higher than indicated in the application for permission to hold a gathering.

On the same day, police dispersed about two thousand youths who showed up for a concert in support of the channel at Moscow's club "Plan B,' Gazeta.ru reported. The management of the club called the police after more people than expected had shown up, realizing they couldn't handle such a huge crowd.

By Vladimir Kozlov