Russian station's licence renewed amid row over South Park, cartoons

A Russian TV station criticized for broadcasting satirical animated shows like South Park and The Family Guy won a reprieve on Wednesday when the country's broadcasting commission approved its licence renewal.

"It was a unanimous decision to recommend extending the licence," said Mikhail Seslavinsky, head of the Federal Agency for Print and Mass Media, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The station's broadcast licence had been set to expire Oct. 17.

A religious group and some Russian government officials have blasted the channel known as 2X2 for airing teen- and adult-oriented cartoons, claiming that the productions are extremist, violent, pornographic and offensive to different religions.

"I've got no problem with my sense of humour, but any satire has its limits," pastor Konstantin Bendas, who is heading up a campaign against the station and submitted formal complaints to Russian prosecutors, told Agence France-Presse.

"If Christian communion is compared to eating feces, is that funny?" he asked, referring to an episode of South Park.

The complaints have also led to the station being criminally investigated for possibly breaching existing broadcasting laws intended to protect children and strict legistation introduced in 2006 that expanded the definition of extremism to include "the abasement of national dignity" and "inciting religious and national hatred."

Fans rally in support, but station suspends cartoons for now

Last weekend, several hundred teenaged fans staged protests in Moscow and St. Petersberg expressing support of the channel and accusing the critics of censorship.

Nonetheless, on Monday under threat of losing its licence 2X2 suspended broadcasting the notoriously foul-mouthed South Park and nearly a dozen other cartoons for the time being.A 2X2 spokeswoman emphasized, however, that any violent cartoons had not been directed at children and only shown at night.

The company's executives have also suggested in interviews that the campaign against 2X2 is being prompted by a desire for the station's slot on the television dial.

ARussian politican and critic of the channel seemed to give credence to that theory when he revealed that a new, state-run TV channel aimed at Russian youth was in the works.

Pavel Tarakanov, chair of the committee on youth issues in the Russian parliament, told a Russian newspaper published on Wednesday thatthe new channel"will reflect the state's views in the area of youth policy" and that its mandate is "near completion."

2X2 has repeatedly weathered controversy over its programming over the last year. In 2007, Christian and Muslim organizations united to try to kick the channel off the air, claming that its content is anti-religious, violent and promoting of homosexuality.

In February, a Russian TV regulatory body warned about some ofthe cartoons and, the following month, Russian Protestant leaders complained about the station.