Zelensky Signs Controversial Law to Regulate News Media

Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, has signed into law a measure that expands the government’s regulatory power over the news media, causing concern among journalists that press freedom will be eroded, The New York Times reports.

The legislation was passed by Ukraine’s Parliament earlier this month as part of a package of bills designed to meet the European Union’s (EU) requirements for membership.

Ukrainian journalists claim that the new media statute goes beyond what the EU requires and accuse the government of using membership obligations as a pretext to seize greater control of the press.

The media regulation bill grants the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting, Ukraine’s state broadcasting regulator, authority over online and print news media.

It allows the regulator to fine media outlets, revoke their licenses, temporarily block certain online media outlets without a court order, and request that social media platforms and search engines remove content that violates the law.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, called for Ukrainian lawmakers to drop the bill in September, stating that it tightens “government control over information at a time when citizens need it the most.”

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine warned before the parliamentary vote that the bill would contribute to the erosion of freedoms that “distinguish the social system of Ukraine from the regime of dictatorial Russia.”

Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, called the bill’s regulation “coercive” and “worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes.”

However, Yevheniia Kravchuk, Deputy Chair of the Parliament’s information policy committee, argued that changes to Ukraine’s media legislation were necessary.

“Of course, this bill is even broader than the E.U. directive, because we needed to change and modernize our media legislation, which has not been changed for 16 years,” she said in a statement after the bill was passed. “It was adopted back when there was no internet at all.”

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