ARGENTINA-FRANCE: Religious minorities in the eye of media cyclones: From BAYS to MISA
*A paper presented at the Faith & Freedom Summit IV, Latin American Parliament, Panama City, September 25, 2024.
By Willy Fautré
Bitter Winter (03.10.2024) -The Latin American Parliament in Panama hosted one of the most important gatherings on religious liberty in recent times. Fautré told the attending politicians, diplomats, and scholars how media cooperate with biased prosecutors in spreading fake news about groups stigmatized as “cults.”
Introduction
The right to freedom of thought, of opinion, and of expression is a sacred value that must be protected against winds and tides in dictatorial and totalitarian regimes. In democratic countries, media freedom also needs to be cherished and preserved from all forms of interference and takeover by political parties or financial powers.
Media outlets and journalists in our democracies are expected to respect ethical norms as enshrined in their professional charters, something similar to the Hippocratic oath for doctors. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, especially when they cover issues related to religious minorities whose doctrines, unconventional thoughts, and life practices deviate from mainstream thinking, mindset, and behaviors. In such cases the temptation of sensationalism often prevails, usually for mere commercial reasons. The usual scapegoats are Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Scientology, all sorts of minority Christian churches, Hare Krishna, or yoga groups anchored in “foreign” cultural philosophies. They are labeled as “cults,” a term having de facto a negative connotation.
The terminology used by the media is an issue in itself
The United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights, and other international organizations use neutral terminologies to name any religious or belief community in their declarations, reports, or court decisions. The media, and other information and communication actors in Europe, do not follow that ethical norm and practice but opt for a discriminatory and derogatory naming of such groups because it sells better, most of the time without any risk of prosecution.
The categorization of some religious, spiritual or belief groups as “cults,” additionally qualified as dangerous, harmful, or totalitarian is first of all the work of former disgruntled members of such movements who want to take revenge.
What are the mechanisms generating stigmatization, hostility, and intolerance?
A number of major media outlets and press agencies, which lack religious culture and expertise, often reproduce unilateral declarations of former members without investigating and checking whether they are not biased and are not false accusations, fake news, or gross lies.
They thus contribute to a climate of suspicion, intolerance, hostility, and discrimination that can lead to dramatic consequences in the personal and professional lives of members of religious or belief minorities and their children at school.
The irresponsible role of certain media can incite hate speech, hate crimes, acts of violence against peaceful believers or against religious or communal buildings, and even homicides.
Media actors lacking vigilance or moved by the argument that sensational stories sell well have their share of responsibility in the stigmatization and demonization of some religious or belief groups and their members.
Unfounded accusations amplified by the media not only influence public opinion and reinforce stereotypes. They also shape the ideas of political decision-makers, who in an increasing number of Western democracies take specific restrictive discriminatory measures further stigmatizing and demonizing certain religious or belief minorities.
Our organization, Human Rights Without Frontiers, has worked hard to debunk fake news and unfounded accusations, by investigating concrete cases with the help of scholars in religious studies and lawyers, by publishing court decisions restoring the truth, and mainly by systematically sharing the findings of its research with journalists and Parliament members. One of such cases, among others in Europe and America, that we have covered concerns the Buenos Aires Yoga School in Argentina in the last two years.
What is the case of the Buenos Aires Yoga School (BAYS) in Argentina?
On 12 August 2022, in the evening, fully armed SWAT team police broke the front door of a coffee shop located on the ground-floor of a ten-story building in a middle-class district of Buenos Aires where about 60 people in their sixties were attending a quiet philosophy class.
By force, they entered the building which was the seat of the Buenos Aires Yoga School and comprised 25 private apartments and professional offices of a number of its members. They went up to all the premises and without knocking or ringing the bells, they violently opened all the doors by force, seriously damaging them. Some residents running after them tried to give them the keys so that they could enter without destroying the entryways, but their peaceful offer was ignored.
The police wanted to film every part of the operation that was “useful” to justify the crackdown ordered by the prosecutors of a state agency called PROTEX, dealing with human trafficking and labor and sex exploitation.
Similar scenes took place around Buenos Aires during all the night, in other private apartments of BAYS students, totaling 51 raids. In one of those apartments, a man was badly beaten by the police for no reason (it came out later they had mistaken him for somebody else). All in all, twenty persons were arrested.
The operation had “mysteriously” been leaked to the media and on the next morning, they were all filled with pictures and videos commented in a biased way by the prosecutors.
Since then, the Buenos Aires Yoga School (BAYS) has been pilloried by Argentinian media outlets. Over 400 news and articles described the school as a “horror cult” that had allegedly been operating an international prostitution ring for thirty years.
Seventeen defendants, the oldest 84 years old, were publicly accused of and prosecuted for crimes of criminal association, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and money laundering, but all the interrogated women denied having been victims of sexual abuse or having ever been prostitutes. Several months later, a court of appeal declared the nullity of the elevation to trial of the case and sent it back to the first judge (who seems stubbornly determined to continue it). In the meantime, the private and professional lives as well as the financial situation of both defendants and alleged “victims” had been totally destroyed.
We are now working on a case with some similar features concerning the MISA yoga school in France, which is also anchored in “exotic” philosophies.
The case of Romanian yoga practitioners in France
On 28 November 2023, just after 6 a.m., a SWAT team of around 175 policemen wearing black masks, helmets, and bullet proof vests, simultaneously descended on eight separate houses and apartments in and around Paris but also in Nice (South of France) mainly used by peaceful Romanian yoga practitioners. They were brandishing semi-automatic rifles, shouting, making very loud noises, crashing doors, and putting everything upside down.
The first objective of the operation was to arrest people involved in alleged “trafficking in human beings,” “forcible confinement,” and “abuse of vulnerability” in “organized gang.” The second objective was to “save” victims of such illegal activities.
The massive special police intervention forces expected to find criminals and victims, poor young Romanian women exploited as prostitutes or about to be raped and their so-called “abusers” but none of them was either a victim of sexual exploitation or was practicing prostitution (which by the way is not illegal in France).
About fifty Romanian yoga practitioners linked to the MISA yoga school in Romania were taken to police stations where they were kept for two days and two nights, or more in some cases, for biased interrogations. At any rate, they were real victims—of the police intervention, as they were kept in custody in inhuman and humiliating conditions and without the proper assistance of interpreters and lawyers. They had just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. At this stage, the case is still being investigated by the prosecutor but in the meantime, dozens of sensational articles demonizing the MISA yoga school and their leaders have been published by the media in France and abroad, including unfortunately those with the best reputation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we at Human Rights Without Frontiers, want
- to remind media outlets and journalists to abide by internationally recognized ethical standards when covering religious issues, and
- to stimulate the organization of professional workshops for journalists and media people about how to cover issues related to religious minorities, without inciting illegitimate suspicion and hostility.
The Latin American Parliament in Panama City, where the Faith and Freedom Summit IV was held.
Further reading about FORB in Argentina and in France on HRWF website