Scolding of Farniev contradicts Ossetians' traditions

The Farniev family council has accused the journalist, Zaur Farniev, of violating the principles of agdau – the Ossetians' unwritten set of ethical rules – for publishing the news about an accident involving the brother of the head of North Ossetia. The Ossetians had no such a tradition of condemnation, the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted.

On December 20, the message about public scolding of the journalist of the newspaper "Kommersant", Zaur Farniev, was received by the SMS service of the "Caucasian Knot".

"In North Ossetia, the Farniev family council has issued a public reprimand to the journalist of the 'Kommersant' newspaper, Zaur Farniev. His relatives have condemned him for publishing information about the road accident involving the brother of the head of the republic, in which four people perished. The letter was signed by six people," the author of the message wrote.

The signatories "drew the attention" of the journalist Farniev to the inadmissibility of disregarding elementary ethics and the principles of agdau (unwritten code of ethical rules).

In his comment on the situation with Zaur Farniev, Ruslan Totrov, the editor of the "OsNova" portal, has emphasized that such a tradition of condemnation did not exist among the Ossetians before. In his opinion, the letter is "undoubtedly a desire to please the authorities' self-esteem, packed into a quasi-noble shell."

Alik Pukhaev, a blogger believes that the authorities used the traditional institution in their own interests. Speaking about the correspondence of the actions of the authors of the letter against Farniev to the agdau – the Ossetians' code of honour, – Mr Pukhaev has noted that from the point of view of the agdau, a family can declare the rejection of a person if he has committed a defamatory crime. "However, this is not the case," Alik Pukhaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 22, 2020 at 03:34 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.