GOD AND THE HIGHWAY CODE

The dreadful censorship of the so-called communist party in China and the mind-numbing restrictions of Moslem leaders in the Middle East are often attacked in the Western media but what is not so generally known is the censorship enacted by Christian churches in the so-called free West. "Slovakia's broadcasting regulator Tuesday slapped a two-million-koruna (60,000 euros, 88,400 dollars) fine on a private TV company for mocking the Vatican, a report said. The broadcasting council said a programme screened by commercial station Joj's last year, which mocked Vatican instructions on applying the concept of Christian love to driving, abused viewers' religious sensibilities and was not objective, the CTK agency reported. Priests were "not the best experts" to give guidance on driving since the Vatican possessed "only two kilometres of highway and the last traffic accident was more than half a year ago," the programme mocked." (Yahoo News, 8 January) RD