At the today´s briefing at the Parliament, Mykola Tomenko was asked about the possibility of holding the parliamentary hearings on the freedom of speech. The Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stated that the hearings can be initiated after the profile parliamentary Committee discusses the issue on renewal of censorship in mass media.
According to M.Tomenko, the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information shall discuss the issues of censorship and freedom of speech at its meeting on Wednesday. Therefore, the resolution on the holding of hearings should be adopted after the Committee passes corresponding recommendations. "It should be a common resolution of the journalists, the public and the parliament, so the resolution on the holding of parliamentary hearings shall be passed due to the results of the Committee´s work", 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."