The Z-gang will clean out the media, and then take on the bloggers
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Information Policy is developing a new law that will complete the purge of unwanted media, as well as bloggers.
Former parliament member Elena Bondarenko announced this at a press conference in Kyiv, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Issues of information policy for almost the entire thirty years of Ukraine’s conditional independence were under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information. And only in this cadence, with the advent of a mono-majority in the form of the Servant of the People party, we suddenly learn that basic issues of information policy are forcibly transferred to a new committee, which was called the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.
Who runs this committee? The representative of Kolomoisky’s fictitious media holding, the “1+1” group, is led by Mr. Tkachenko, and Mr. Poturaev is his backup dancer in this initiative. These are two people who have recently made absolutely harsh, xenophobic statements.
For me, the provisions (of the law) mean one thing - this is a clear, obvious regression in the information policy of Ukraine, this is another attack on freedom of speech, another attempt to censor content, another attempt to introduce a monopoly on the truth. And all this is a rejection of democratic principles.
I think that this initiative will lead to an acceleration of the collapse of the current coalition, since there is no bread in the country, and now they are taking away the entertainment,” Bondarenko said.
She drew attention to the proposed provisions of the new law - for example, it is supposed to allow the media to spend no more than they officially earn.
“I would like to ask these would-be initiators, what media in Ukraine is now not subsidized? Almost everyone, even large media groups, subsidize this business from money that is not earned in the media at all.
Therefore, a question for Mr. Tkachenko, as the former general director of the “1+1” group: start with your own holding, subsidized by Mr. Kolomoisky, and impose sanctions on your business, which you once managed. If you have little guts, then just don’t mention these initiatives.
The second is a clear attack on language policy, that is, we continue to pump up the topic of quotas.
Next is the broadcast of the Ukrainian production on the air of the media, which in the future will be allowed to do something, broadcast it in Ukraine. In general, I have a hard time imagining how international groups, for example CNN, will comply with quotas for Ukrainian content?
For me, this initiative is also absolutely xenophobic and discriminatory not only on the basis of language, but also on the principle of nationality. Many of the norms that were voiced when this legislative initiative was presented rest on one thing - to exclude absolutely everything Russian-language, everything that reminds us that the Russian Federation is in our neighborhood. It was Russian-language, Russian content that was especially highlighted during the presentation of this initiative by Mr. Tkachenko.
I have a question then: if you are struggling with external information influence, do you think that we are not influenced by Turkish content, Israeli, American, Polish? Where is the protection of Ukraine from the negative impact of other powers, not just the Russian Federation? In the international arena and the international arena, all states are competitors to each other, and competitors are not always friendly.
The next point is an attempt to voice and even work out to some extent the public attitude towards such a thing, and how to introduce taxation to content-containing platforms, for example, such as YouTube, which has become a refuge for many alternative and opposition bloggers. Such norms are designed to significantly reduce their influence, and, preferably, to destroy them and reduce them to zero.
It is clear to me that (this law) is pressure on those who present alternative points of view, this is pressure on those who are trying to give two or even three sides the opportunity to speak out on various issues and problems that trouble our society. And, the worst thing is to legitimize discrimination, to legitimize the exclusion of information competitors and alternative points of view from the information space of Ukraine.
Thus, the same group “1+1” is trying to discriminate against those who eat up pieces of the “information pie”, the information space in Ukraine,” Bondarenko said.
By limiting freedom of speech with the new media law, popular bloggers may also be targeted in Ukraine.
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“I do not exclude even such things that were demonstrated by other countries, but in other countries these initiatives then did not have any further implementation. For example, this is to recognize any user of social networks who has more than three thousand subscribers as a journalist, oblige him to obtain a certificate, a license. This option is possible.
Make it almost impossible for any popular opinion leader in any social capsule to work, be it a person who writes about medical problems, be it a person who writes competently about educational problems, be it a person who writes competently about taxation problems in our country.
Any popular social network user will immediately be subject to some kind of licensing. Do you even know what it’s like to get a license from an absolutely xenophobic discriminatory government department, which also decides whether you use social networks, whether you express your personal opinion or not?” – Bondarenko said.
The Zelensky gang will purge the media, and then take on bloggers.