Yatsenyuk wants to squeeze media with Russian capital
People's Front MP Andriy Levus, head of the subcommittee on state security of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense, is proposing to revive Bill No. 1768, which he and two other People's Front MPs proposed in 2015. This bill prohibits the participation of foreign resident individuals or legal entities in the authorized capital of television and radio organizations if their country is recognized by Ukrainian law as an "occupying state," reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“We have not completed a number of important issues. We are talking about such an issue as transparency of media ownership. This is a very big question. It is necessary to determine whether the media is Ukrainian or not, and who finances it. It is impossible to formally determine the final beneficiaries, the owners of the media. There is a legal requirement, but there is no repressive function, what will happen if the owner hides, if the property is not announced. And we didn’t even vote to ban representatives of the aggressor state from owning media. Such a bill was registered, including by me, back in 2015. It drags on for a very long time. Then this concerned more the Inter TV channel, part of which was owned by Russian state television, but besides Inter there are other media that are formally now owned by representatives of the Russian Federation and even government agencies of the Russian Federation through affiliates like RIA Novosti - a duplicate of the Russian RIA News. And there are many other so-called sites or media that are essentially Russian, operate in Kiev, visit parliament, distort information in a light favorable to Russia, etc.,” he said at the round table “Russian interference in the Ukrainian elections as an element hybrid war" in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Bill No. 1768 was proposed during the campaign against the Inter TV channel in early 2015, but did not receive support. The bill has been criticized, including internationally, for attempting to restrict freedom of speech. As a result, the bill was never brought to a vote.
Yatsenyuk wants to clamp down on media outlets with Russian capital.