Rada to consider “anti-journalism” law again: “This is a blow to investigators” – Yurchyshyn

13 January 17:25
OPINION

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has not abandoned the idea of adopting draft law No. 10242, which provides for punishment for publishing classified data from registers. The document has been put back on the agenda. Read more about this in an exclusive comment to Komersant ukrainskyi the head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.

Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the document in the first reading, but under public pressure, it did not pass the second reading. However, the draft law was not completely rejected, but sent back for a second reading. A month later, MPs are ready to vote again for the document, which was initiated mainly by MPs from the Servant of the People faction.

The essence of the bill

The document provides for criminal liability for disclosure of information obtained from closed registers.

“This law should help simplify the processes of public administration, protect the rights of individuals and legal entities, and meet the information needs of civil society,”

– reads the explanatory note to the draft law.

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The draft law establishes a penalty of up to 8 years in prison for disclosure of information from registers. At the same time, it does not contain any exceptions for whistleblowers of socially important information, in particular in the case of journalistic investigations.

Therefore, journalists and human rights activists have previously called for the law not to be adopted in its current form, as it may hinder the work of investigative journalists and corruption whistleblowers.

“Absurd initiative”

The parliamentary committee on freedom of speech said it did not support the document. Committee Chairman Yaroslav Yurchyshyn considers the draft law absurd.

“It is difficult for me to justify the ‘importance’ of such a bill, because I am categorically against it, at least in its current version. This is an absurd initiative that simultaneously reduces the rights of media professionals and even threatens investigative journalists with criminal liability,”

– yurchyshyn said in an exclusive commentary .

According to him, in addition to creating risks for freedom of speech, this draft law also unleashes the hands of potential corrupt officials.

“They are only too happy to block the activities of journalists who can show the public certain corruption crimes. This is an inappropriate initiative from all points of view, which has been repeatedly opposed by media professionals,”

– emphasized Yurchyshyn.

He noted that the draft law has not changed much between the two second readings.

“They put on the agenda almost the same version of the bill as last time. The only thing that has changed is the amendments on corruption whistleblowers, but nothing has changed in terms of access to public information,”

– says the MP.

According to Yurchyshyn, the Committee on Freedom of Speech proposed to hold a public event with journalists and media experts before the initiative was considered by the Rada, but the majority representatives ignored this proposal.

“Privately, we were made to understand that this draft law is needed to prevent investigators from asking uncomfortable questions about abuse of power,”

– says the MP.

Yurchyshyn assures that the Voice faction, to which he belongs, will do its best to “shoot down” the document.

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Остафійчук Ярослав
Editor