An open statement about threats to national security and new attack on freedom of speech in Ukraine
June 25, 2018
To:
President of Ukraine
PETRO POROSHENKO
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
ANDRII PARUBII
Prime Minister of Ukraine
VOLODYMYR HROISMAN
Head of the parliamentary group of the Party “BLOCK OF PETRO POROSHENKO”
ARTUR HERASYMOV
Head of the group of the Political party “NARODNY FRONT”
MAKSYM BURBAK
Co-chairman of the group of the Political party “OPPOSITION BLOCK”
YURII BOIKO
Head of the group of the Political party “SAMOPOMICH”
OLEH BEREZIUK
Head of the group of the RADICAL PARTY OF UKRAINE
OLEH LIASHKO
Head of the group of the Political party “BATKIVSHCHYNA”
YULIIA TYMOSHENKO
Chairman of the parliamentary group “VOLIA NARODU”
YAROSLAV MOSKALENKO
Co-chairman of the party group “VIDRODJENNYA”
VITALII KHOMUTYNNIK
Mr. President! Mr. Chairman! Mr. Prime Minister! Ladies and gentlemen!
The European Party of Ukraine appeals to you about the new unprecedented threat to freedom of speech and democracy in Ukraine.
Immediately after the Revolution of Dignity, the authorities placed systemic pressure on freedom of speech in Ukraine. Every year, the freezing of independent and opposition media is tightened. The blockade of television channels, threats to journalists, interference with editorial policy, pressure from law enforcement agencies on channels and on journalists, searches in editors office, murder and aggression upon journalists – this is the reality in which opposite journalists live and work today.
On June 21, 2018, the Ukrainian parliament joined the attack on freedom of speech. With a gross violation of the Rules of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, people’s elected representatives included in the agenda the draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Responding to National Security Threats in the Information Sphere” (Reg. No. 6688, Vinnik, Timchuk, Chornovil). This document proposes to legitimize the possibility of blocking access to sites on the Internet, upon the submission of a prosecutor, investigator or National Security and Defense Council and a decision of the National Commission, which carries out state regulation in the field of communication and information.
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Internet Association of Ukraine and independent media experts have identified the norms of this draft law as a threat to national security and another attack on freedom of speech in Ukraine. The draft law has nothing to do with counteracting threats to national security, but instead, it can be a tool for selective blocking of information resources that criticize the authorities on the eve of the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019. Adoption of the document will become an irreparable tragedy for the constitutional freedoms of Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine will be on the way to establishing an anti-democratic dictatorial regime. This will completely overturn all perspectives of the country’s integration into the European Union.
The European Party of Ukraine calls you to take personal control of the fate of the dictatorial draft law and make all possible to prevent its adoption by parliament. Ukrainian heroes died on Maidan not for the attempt of the authorities to adopt their own analogue of the “laws of January 16”! The draft law should be withdrawn from parliament, and its authors must apologize to the society!
By our side, the European Party of Ukraine will make every effort to bring the attention of the European Union and the G-7 countries together with the National Union of Journalists, representatives of independent Ukrainian media to the emergence of a new threat to freedom of speech in Ukraine in the form of the draft law No. 6688.
Chairman of the European Party of Ukraine
Mykola Katerynchuk