Amendments to Ukraine’s law on media are necessary, there are many norms in authoritarian traditions - Ukrainian MP

Ukraine should not test the EU’s patience and try to push authoritarian tendencies of media regulation to the EU under the guise of the European integration law

Ukrainian MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi shared his point of view with Espreso TV.

"We need to introduce amendments to the law on media with clear regulation of online media, and not leave it as it is currently. It is necessary to make changes that will eliminate state television. We once abandoned it, left the public and private television to broadcast so the state will not brainwash people and not fool them at their expense," he said.

According to Kniazhytskyi, there are many norms in the best traditions of authoritarian regimes, such as Russia and other countries that were part of the USSR.

"It seems to me that we are fighting against those autocracies and it is obvious that all these norms should be changed. We will register amendments. There is something to worry about, especially since this law is one of the European integration laws. There is another law - on the Constitutional Court - and the European Commission directly says that it is necessary to implement the recommendations of the Venice Commission, which were not implemented during the voting for this law. People think that you can become a member of the EU without fulfilling any European norms. Now is a very good time, Europeans support us and want us to become EU members, like all of us. We should not test their patience and under this desire to support us try to push authoritarian tendencies of media regulation into the EU," the MP concluded.

 

On December 13, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law on media (№2693-D).

On December 29, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the Law "On Media".