Posted on 12/30/2022 9:43:00 AM PST by JonPreston
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has signed off on legislation that would significantly expand the government’s regulatory power over the news media, a measure that journalists have warned will erode press freedom.
Mr. Zelensky, whose administration has been criticized for undermining press freedoms, ordered the drafting of a law increasing media regulation in 2019.
The measure was passed by Ukraine’s Parliament earlier this month along with a spate of other bills that lawmakers say were intended to help the country meet the European Union’s legislative conditions for membership. The bills included measures to protect the rights of national minorities. Mr. Zelensky signed the media regulation bill into law on Thursday, the Ukrainian media reported.
The media regulation bill expands the authority of Ukraine’s state broadcasting regulator, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting, to cover the online and print news media. It gives the regulator the power 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 giants like Google remove content that violates the law, the Ukrainian news media has reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Dictatorship: Zelenskyy Bans Political Opposition, Seizes Media Control
Russia has passed ‘100 new laws’ restricting press freedom
“Freedom of speech and freedom of information are everything to me,” explains Timchenko in this new edition of our “Global Voices of Freedom” series. The 60-year-old editor-in-chief of meduza.io confirms that freedom of the press and freedom of expression have been under attack in Russia for many years. She ran one of the most widely circulated Russian news media, lenta.ru, for a decade until 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region, with Russian-backed forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces.
“At that time, the Kremlin directly ordered the owner of Lenta to fire me,” she tells SWI swissinfo.ch. “So I had to leave Russia for Latvia and Riga where I founded a new media outlet Meduza in order to have the freedom of the press that was no longer possible in Russia. For me and all my colleagues it was a real life change.”
Today the new publication, which the Ukrainian-Russian journalist heads, is very popular not only in Russia but also internationally since it publishes news both in Russian and English. “Meduza is a multimedia platform that makes its voice heard on all social networks, on messenger and through newsletters,” Timchenko adds. This has enabled it to attract many young people, who today make up half of the readership.
However, as a direct consequence of the Russian attack on Ukraine, in March meduza.io was blocked in Russia by the authorities. “Since then about hundred new laws restricting press freedom have been passed in Russia. There is military censorship, and the victims are precisely the media organisations: 100 newspapers have been declared foreign agents and accused of treason and espionage. And hundreds of journalists have left the country,” Timchenko adds: “There will be no freedom of press and expression, no respect for human rights in Russia as long as Putin remains in power.”
Just because he does Nazi stuff doesn’t make him a Nazi.
I’m so tired of Zelenskyy. Isn’t there a new disease we can fight about?
Soon we’re going to have economic news to fight about.
I just want something to bridge the gap…
You know who wants to regulate the news? Liars. If the situation is as portrayed, let the news flow.
Yeah, but he is such a hero, Churchillian, God like. He does all this because he is in a war dontcha know. It is okay when he does it.
No, he is a working class hero. So what if he has banned opposition political parties, banned the Orthodox Christian church linked to Russia, and curtailed freedom of the press. Just pesky details.
All the EU and US deep-state’s wet dreams are being made reality in Ukraine
That’s why the left adores him, he is their favorite lil dictator..if Trump did HALF of what this douche bag does on a daily basis they would have impeached him 20 times over
In before the Zel sucklings start running apologetics.
You pro-Putin people sure do like seeing gay porn, doncha?
IIRC, Poroshenko, the Chocolate King, actually owned the media when he was President.
and you are clarifying what he is...thanks
100%
Why would he mess with the media? They’re kissing his ass daily. And with a lot of help of our own Uke cabal.
Same here and I am equally sick of his spammy, gushing little fan club.
They’re FR herpes…
It would be interesting to compare how far Zelenskyy has gone in the dictator direction compared to Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, and LBJ.
I realize that American soil was seldom under direct threat so the measures taken would not have needed to be as strict as those for a country whose very existence is in doubt, but Zelenskyy seems to be going far further in the authoritarian/totalitarian direction than he needs to.
Most are posting from places other than America.
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