The Bill (Reg. No. 4500) enhances
responsibility of the public officials for the actions related to the political
actions, and imposes certain sanctions for the committal of such actions.
Thus, it supplements Clause 21 of the Law "On Information" with a new part that restricts the categories of persons authorized to make announcements on behalf of the public authority and local self government bodies. Pursuant to the Bill, the authorized persons include the leaders (the heads or deputy heads) and specially authorized officials a spokesperson, a press secretary and a head of the press service.
The Committee members expressed a number of remarks concerning the Bill. Thus, the People´s Deputies believe that its regulations fail to comply with the effective legislation concerning the categories of persons authorized to cover the activity of public authority and local self-government bodies in the mass media. Hence, the suggested version of the Bill will lead to the legislative discrepancies.
The Bill also imposes certain restrictions on the right of the public officials to be engaged in the political activity. The Committee members stressed that the Law "On the Political Parties in Ukraine" determined the categories of persons not authorized to become the members of the political parties (judges, prosecution officials, officials of the internal affairs bodies, the Security Service of Ukraine officials, military servicemen and officials of the State Taxation Service). Thus, the effective legislation imposes restrictions concerning membership of certain categories of public officials in the parties.