Lithuania: Insult the Pope, Pay $1,400

First the good news: Lithuania, perhaps in a stab at being just like a civilized country, places no prior restraints on free speech. So when a broadcaster announced it had scheduled a TV series spoofing the pope, and the Catholic Church wanted it banned from the airwaves, a Lithuanian court told the monsigniors to take a hike.

The bad news is, that wasn't the end of it, and now it's not the usual gaggle of church ladies but government busybodies who are sticking their noses where they don't belong.

Lithuania's television watchdog has fined the director of MTV Networks Baltic for airing Popetown, a controversial cartoon series that pokes fun at the Roman Catholic Church. The 13-member Radio and Television Commission voted unanimously to fine Marius Veselis 3000 litas ($1435), commission chairman Jonas Liniauskas said.

The cartoons, which depict the Pope as a rotund 77-year-old obsessed with his pogo-stick and surrounded by toys, provoked a storm of criticism in Lithuania, where 80 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic. The commission made its decision after the Inspector of Journalists' Ethics, Romas Gudaitis, said Popetown should be banned because it portrayed the clergy as destructive and incited religious discrimination. 

Do Lithuanian catholics, those poor things, not have an off button on their TV sets? Shall we pass the collection plate to alleviate their suffering?

But more to the point, chew on that — Inspector of Journalists' Ethics. Yeah, you can really claim the ethical high ground when you rob others of the right to free expression, and side with an oppressive institution famous for its misogynists and child-buggerers. Also note that that sentence appears to be illegal in the Baltic state.