"In the issues of freedom of speech and censorship one should be guided by the law only, not by the recommendations of the authorities", Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, stated, commenting upon the recent statements regarding renewal of mass media censorship.
The Deputy Chairman is surprised at the recent discussion concerning presence or absence of censorship in mass media. "A great many public officials have an incompetent definition and assessment of censorship", he stated.
M.Tomenko reminded of a significant political, public and expert discussion on this issue in Ukraine in 2002-2003. "This discussion involved parliamentary hearings, a corresponding bill being adopted in the result. As an initiator of the bill, I drafted it jointly with the experts and the media community. I would like to reiterate that effective legislation offers a clear-cut definition of censorship, as well as the list of censorship manifestation", M.Tomenko stated. Thus, the Law of Ukraine "On Information" prohibits: "interference in the forms not envisaged by the legislation of Ukraine or the contract between the founder (co-founders) and the mass media editorial staff into the professional activity of the journalists, control over the content of distributed information on the part of mass media founders (co-founders), public authority and local self-government bodies, officials of these bodies with the purpose of distribution or non-distribution of certain information, concealment of publicly significant information, prohibition on demonstration of certain persons or distribution of information about them, prohibition of criticism of public authority and local self-government bodies, or their officials."
"Thus, the fact that officials in charge of mass media freely interpret the concepts of censorship and freedom of speech can be explained by two reasons: either their ignorance of effective legislation, or by the failure of the Party of Regions to vote for this law. Comparing it to the recent discussion about the law "On the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine", it looks like the Party of Regions shall not implement the laws it had not supported", M.Tomenko stressed.
For reference: Parliamentary hearings "Society, Mass Media, Authorities: Freedom of Speech and Censorship in Ukraine" were held on 4 December 2002. In the result of the hearings, the bill on amendments to several laws of Ukraine in the result of the parliamentary hearings "Society, Mass Media, Authorities: Freedom of Speech and Censorship in Ukraine" was adopted (author M.Tomenko).