Ruslan Sokolovsky, a Russian YouTube blogger, was guilty of playing a video game “Pokémon GO” in an Orthodox church. The most prestigious and famous newspapers in the world described this case in their daily columns. The adjudication of the Russian blogger for playing a “Pokémon GO” game in a church is to be discussed below.
A Reason for Judging
My task for this assignment was to find and to compare three newspaper articles on a religious topic. I preferred to enlighten the case of Ruslan Sokolovsky, a scandalous video blogger from Russia. He has decided to play an extremely popular game “Pokémon GO” inside of an Orthodox church (Cresci, 2017). He would not do it if Russian government had not established a law that put a restriction on doing so in a church.
“Pokémon GO” became the biggest trend in 2016 – many people were playing it with their friends, parents, classmates, and siblings. Ruslan Sokolovsky filmed a video of him playing this videogame in a restricted place and posted it to YouTube video hosting. He wanted to show his subscribers that nothing crucial can happen to him, but suddenly, he got arrested and remanded in custody for the committed perpetration.
Articles in the Newspapers
I took three articles of The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post to compare their presentations of the case that was mentioned above. The Washington Post emphasized how atheistic Ruslan Sokolovsky was – this article did not give any credit to the blogger, nor to the Russian government. It says that this situation is ridiculous and that catching “Pokémon” is not worth the court’s attention – there are more significant issues and crimes that have to be solved in Russia at that present moment. The article described the process that was pictured on the evidential video.
The New York Times just gave some credible facts and evidence and did not provide a general account of what happened to Sokolovsky. This source also mentioned the similar illegal action that was initiated by two women from a “Pussy Riot” band in 2012. The women suddenly entered an Orthodox church and started offending people by dancing striptease and being vulgar. They were imprisoned for their behavior as well. This article also referred to a judge Shoponyak and her statement about the accuser. She said that Sokolovsky was guilty not only of playing the game in the church but also of posting multiple anti-religious and offensive videos to his official channel. The New York Times has also provided additional information about Russian presidential candidate, Alexey Navalny who has been thrown in jail for organizing meetings against the present Russian government.
The Guardian did not provide much information about this trial and posted a link to the video of Ruslan Sokolovsky that had been already deleted. The article informed its readers about three and a half years of probation, which the blogger received instead of an actual term in a real prison. The author also referred to the “Pussy Riot” punk band, and quoted their message from a social network Twitter.
Emphases in the Articles
The three articles mentioned above emphasize different statements about the judgment of the Russian blogger in Yekaterinburg court. For instance, The Guardian accented on Ruslan Sokolovsky’s disrespect for the society, as he did not obey the law and neglected other people’s faith, religion, and values. At the same time, The New York Times described a religious situation in Russia, informing that it used to be an atheistic country officially, but the local population has lately identified themselves as an Orthodox nation.
The Washington Post provided some quotations of Sokolovsky’s words about his viewpoint. The young man said that that situation was absurd, and he compared himself to people, who were imprisoned for joking about communism back when Stalin governed the Soviet Union (Wang, 2017). This source also mentioned the age of the blogger, address of the court, the city of the trial, and so on. Besides, it described the greatness and significance of an Orthodox church, blaming Sokolovsky for showing disrespect to his culture. The blogger’s words about denying the existence of Jesus Christ were also included in the text.
What was not Mentioned in the Articles
As it was stated above, some statements and facts were left out. The writers were not allowed to provide particular information because the sources are official. Ruslan Sokolovsky is a famous blogger in Russia, and his subscribers are mostly underage (Press, 2017). This case was discussed in a post-soviet space until May, 2017, as he was free to go. Nevertheless, there were some restrictions imposed on him, which he was obligated to follow. Otherwise, he may be given a term of three and a half years in a Yekaterinburg penitentiary.
During an interview, Ruslan Sokolovsky claimed that one of his goals was to become popular and to concentrate media coverage on his personality, which he successfully reached. The blogger won respect from his audience for being atheistic and not respecting the Russian government. He did not support policies of the Duma because he thought that politicians did not pay enough attention to more significant problems in the country, and playing a popular game was definitely not one of them. He claimed that the government verifies such laws, although, an average salary in Russia remains less than two hundred dollars per month. He also popularized his ideology and arguments about atheism – there were a lot of videos available online, where Sokolovsky humiliated the Orthodox religion.
In my opinion, this, and other similar situations were circumvented by a Russian patriarch, Cyril. He has a lot of political power, so that gives him an ability to influence the trial of the Duma, which protects the rights of the Orthodox Christians. Multiple bloggers were blaming him for not paying taxes for his church and business. Russian celebrities did not support his actions, neither did Sokolovsky.
Differences between the Articles
All the articles about Sokolovsky’s trial are similar to one another because they are written by professional journalists, and have the same style of writing. Unfortunately, their statements depend on politics, company administration, and other important factors. The only difference among the articles is their length because some sources prefer to point out the most crucial facts, instead of covering all of them. The Guardian is more socially oriented, therefore, they make their articles readable for any age category. The Guardian writers add hashtags into their articles, use a slang speech, and leave links to authentic and original publications.
When Sokolovsky was released, he said that all the media made a tremendous mistake by discussing him and his actions in public. As it was said before, these actions only helped him to achieve his goal. He wanted to become more popular, and that is how the government helped him. After a judge gave him a conditional sentence, he was interviewed by a local radio company. The blogger promised to develop himself in a sphere of social projects, and to be more responsible for his popularity.
Personal Opinion
I picked from the articles of The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post because these sources are respectable and popular. They described everything, referring to credible information, and were not biased towards either side of the conflict. There were other credible sources, but I did not like them because writers expressed their opinions in the articles, which is not always interesting to read if you are not acquainted with a person (Al-Azami, 2016). I prefer these sources because they have been on the publishing market for an extended period of time, which makes them trustworthy. The only thing I did not like about The Guardian article was that it did not provide any pictures of the blogger and of what was going on in the court.
Conclusion
Religion is one of the hottest topics of discussion in the world. Therefore, every journal, newspaper, and other sources have a separate department working on religious news and research. Ruslan Sokolovsky used media in order to gain his popularity, playing a “Pokémon GO” game in an Orthodox church, and was arrested for it. The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post described everything that was going on with Sokolovsky very well, so it was a pleasure for me to read the story of the court’s trial in their interpretations. Writers of these sources did a god job, analyzing all the given facts, and combining them into one logical story.
References
Al-Azami, S. (2016). Religion in the media: A linguistic analysis. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Cresci, E. (2017). Russian youtuber convicted for playing pokémon go in church. The Guardian. Web.
Press, A. (2017). Russian who played “pokémon go” in church is convicted of inciting hatred. The New York Times. Web.
Wang, A. B. (2017). A man played ‘pokémon go’ in a russian church. He may spend 3 1/2 years in prison for it. The Washington Post. Web.