By means of a new media law, the Ukrainian government intends to fight against manipulative and fake news and increase the information literacy of the country’s population. Officials of the Republic commented on this project.
“Today, in Ukraine there is really being held a discussion (supposedly an open one) of how to fight fakes and false information dissemination in the media. But, in fact, this bill, and I am sure that it will become a law, bears the one and only name which is severe censorship, I would call it a dictatorship,” DPR People’s Council deputy Elena Shishkina said.
Along with that, she noted that these are behind-the-scenes agreements between the business elites.
“Freedom of speech has long been unfamiliar to Ukrainian journalists, and one can say that the adoption of a law on this media censorship will bring along the official death of journalism, free media and freedom of speech in Ukraine,” Elena Shishkina said.
The new law contains the concept of an “aggressor state”, on which there will be imposed severe restrictions in the Ukrainian information market. Moreover, the Russian Federation has already been stigmatized as such a state, and, according to the draft law, it is forbidden for both individuals and legal entities of Russia to own media in Ukraine.
DPR Information Minister Igor Antipov stated his opinion on this document.
“We are facing the return of the iron curtain, but obviously in a reduced form. Wouldn’t you agree that any state can be called an aggressor today? And here is the state that is objectionable to the political ambitions of Ukraine. Therefore, what will journalists get? They will face severe restrictions in their activities and the full coverage of events taking place in the territory of the state.
In my opinion, the Ukrainian government wants an independent representative to defend public interests in terms of protection against misinformation. In this regard, I have one question: from whom should they be protected? From the information policy of the government itself? If this position is introduced, in my opinion, the only entity to suffer from misinformation will be the people of Donbass. Moreover, they will be effected on both sides of the delimitation line,” Igor Antipov said.
The Minister also added that in such a way Ukraine would seek to get rid of objectionable media, declaring them unprofitable, and therefore giving the verdict that they violated the media law. And the remaining media would be reminded that their further fate was not up to them. That is, there will be introduced total control by the Ukrainian authorities.
“In fact, this is a clear redistribution of the media market. Someone’s will is being implemented. There is no free development market if they have affected media development. What does the introduction to the media law of coordination and, let’s say, impact on the work of these media mean? Sorry, but there are laws that state and private media must obey… It is much easier to unilaterally make some amendments to the media laws and control them than to look into the eyes of journalists,” Igor Antipov concluded.