IKEA pulls magazine from Russia over gay law
Swedish furniture company stops publication out of fears it breached ban with material deemed homosexual “propaganda”.
Published On 14 Mar 2015
Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, has decided to stop publishing its online magazine in Russia out of fears it violates the country’s law banning promotion of same-sex gay values to minors.
The Swedish company said on Saturday that its magazine IKEA Family Live “demonstrates various aspects of home life regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation”.
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In a statement, IKEA said “we understand that some material in our magazine can be considered as propaganda,” adding it had decided “to stop the publication of the magazine in Russia”.
The Russian law passed in 2013 bans promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to people under the age of 18.
The decision to pull out its magazine comes seven months after IKEA planned to invest more than $2bn in its operations in Russia by 2020.
Source: News Agencies