Yesterday Prof. Alexander Dvorkin of the Holy Ireneus Center of Moscow, a cult info center of the Russian Orthodox Church, told an interesting story how "someone" used TV for a black propaganda campaign against his organisation, helped with "creative editing".
Dvorkin was contacted by a journalist who wanted to hear something on AUM. When he came, the topic wasn't AUM, but "deprogramming". But Dvorkin said that his center doesn't do deprogramming or rehabilitation, only information. He was asked several times, until he got angry. Here how the rest of the actual interview (not the broadcasted one) went:
Q: With which foreign organisations do you work ?
A: With the Dialog Center in Germany, with FAIR from the UK
Q: With which US organisations ?
A: sadly not yet
Q: Which names of US organisations do you know ?
A: AFF "american family foundation", CAN "cult awareness network"
Q: CAN has been in big troubles recently
A: Yes, CAN is an organisation of concerned parents, all cults aree
against it. Of course they are in trouble.
(He then goes on to defend CAN)
Q: Are you an american citizen?
A: I have lived 15 years in the US and have studied there and have a US
passport. I was born in Moscow, and I now live there again.
(end of actual interview)
Dvorkin now showed the actually broadcasted show. The show was about deprogramming. It showed people being kidnapped, a picture of Ted Patrick, shown as "the founder of CAN", being arrested, and finally CAN's bankruptcy court file. One "Steve Hassan" of the "Unification Church" gave a statement against deprogramming. The reporter asks Dvorkin "with whom do you work together", and then he answers "cult awareness network", and later they showed his answer that he is a US citizen. The report explained that CAN, bankrupt in the US, is now moving its activities to Russia.
(end of broadcasted segment)
People in the Berlin conference giggled as the name "Steve Hassan" was associated with the "Unification Church".
Dvorkin then explained that he had witnesses about the interview. Because of that they then threatened the TV station with a lawsuit. As a settlement, they did read a "rebuttal statement" one week later where Dvorkin explained his viewpoint, but they didn't succeed in finding out who was actually behind that show. Dvorkin's statement was read extremely fast by the station. (I noticed that Russian needs more time than german for the same content. But that statement was read super-super-fast).
Later newspapers got all similar "spontaneous" letters condemning Dvorkin. One had a phone number. He called there and represented himself as a "journalist" of the paper. He asked which religion the writer represents. Answer: Scientology. The guy told that they were shown the show and "suggested" to write. Dvorkin asked wether they were shown the rebuttal. No, they weren't.