Mykola Tomenko: Mass Media System approaches the Administrative-Clannish System
In the course of the 'Round Table' Discussion: "State of Liberty of Speech in Ukrainian Mass Media: Actual Problems and Threats", Mykola Tomenko, the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared that there are all the grounds to suppose that the Ukraine mass media space approaches the administrative-clannish model and emphasised that for the present day there is a main task to "divert it into the constitutional sphere."
As an example he mentioned the process of monopolization of television and advertising marjet in the hands of one finance-political group and he deems it dangerous. The Deputy Chairman reminded that at the suit of one of the Russian music channels that are in the group of "Inter" television company, Kyiv County Administrative Court actually dismissed from their offices two members of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting Matters Tetiana Lebedeva and Viktor Ponedilok." M. Tomenko emphasized that appointing and dismissal of National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting Matters members is exclusively under the authority of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and announced that he would initiate the scrutiny of this issue in the Verkhovna Rada and would demand the adequate reaction of the President of Ukraine on these illegal actions.
The Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine paid special attention to the fact that new monitoring proves that there have already appeared in Ukraine "an invisible hand of censorship."