On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed off a controversial bill that substantially increased the government’s regulatory authority over the news media. The new law will give the government new censorship powers the EU claims will strengthen their application for admission.
“The legislation significantly increases the powers of Ukraine’s state broadcasting regulator to allow it to regulate both the print and online news media. Further, it allows for fines to be imposed on media outlets, their licenses to be revoked without due process, and even some websites to be temporarily blocked without going through the courts. Finally, it gives the regulator authority to order search giants such as Google and other social media platforms to remove content,” Reclaim the Net reports.
The law expands the authority of Ukraine’s state broadcasting regulator to cover the online and print news media. Previous drafts gave the regulator the power to fine news media outlets, revoke their licenses, temporarily block certain online outlets without a court order and request that social media platforms and search giants like Google remove content that violates the law, the Ukrainian news media reported.
Mr. Zelensky, whose administration has been accused of undermining press freedom in recent years, ordered the drafting of a law increasing media regulation in 2019, The New York Times reports.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit group that champions press freedom around the world, called for Ukrainian lawmakers to drop the bill in September, saying that it tightened “government control over information at a time when citizens need it the most.”
The European Federation of Journalists, whose general secretary called a previous draft of the law “worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes,” said on Friday that the legislation remained in contradiction with European press freedom standards because the independence of the state media regulator could not be guaranteed.
In other words, they tyrannical Zelensky government will control all the media.
This is the great citadel of freedom, the great democracy we are fighting for throughout the West.
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