Colleagues began to notice the excessive touchiness of the president
In Ukraine, once again, freedom of speech has been grossly violated. The President of the Republic, who previously positioned himself as a staunch defender of the rights and freedoms of fellow citizens, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) dated December 28 of the outgoing year. Under the guise of “countering the information policy of the Russian Federation”, in addition to the ZIK, 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels closed this spring, two more were added to the list of banned ones – First Independent and UkrLive.
A shot from the TV series “Servant of the People”
Following the exception of “objectionable” channels, if you believe the text of the “prohibitive” document, a complete blocking of their financial and economic activities will follow.
The Basic Law of Ukraine, adopted during the reign of Leonid Kuchma, contains neither a hint nor a half-hint about the transfer of the NSDC right to prohibit or block the work of the media. Such decisions are the prerogative of exclusively Ukrainian courts.
Vladimir Zelensky himself stressed in the first years of his rule: no publication or TV channel was banned under him, if only because Vladimir Alexandrovich is “flesh of the flesh” of this very media industry. “Your own in the board”, if in a simple way. The then head of the President’s Office, Andriy Bogdan, claimed: “Zelensky’s team” does not depend at all on the vagaries of the Ukrainian media, they do not really affect domestic politics in Ukraine.
A little over a year later, Vladimir Zelensky’s associates began to note in a low voice the president’s extreme sensitivity to any criticism in the media. 112, News-Van and ZEKE, controlled by prominent Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, were the first to get “under the presidential distribution”. Creative teams of suddenly “closed” media became part of the founders of the channel “First Independent”. Alas, at the request of the SBU, this media also had to stop broadcasting to the whole country an hour after the “premiere”…
Since, as it was emphasized earlier, Viktor Medvedchuk’s channels were not closed legally (that is, by a court decision), media lawyers of Ukraine and a number of EU countries joined the work on their return to the air.
A few days ago, the Economic Court of the city of Kiev finally recognized the ban imposed on the “First Independent” as illegal and ordered the relevant technical structures to restore the broadcasting of the TV channel in full.
Vasily Nimchenko described the new decision to stop broadcasting by UkrLive channels and the “First Independent” member of the Opposition Platform – For Life parliamentary faction as “a sign of information raiding and usurpation of power.” Zelensky, Nimchenko believes, has confidently moved to the “level of dictatorship”, he does not hesitate to appropriate both executive and judicial power, while giving himself the right to execute sentences.
Nimchenko’s colleague in the opposition faction, Yuriy Zavgorodny, counted 9 (nine) gross violations of the Constitution of Ukraine in a document signed yesterday by Zelensky. Among them is the violation of freedom of speech and lack of censorship in Ukraine. Zavgorodny drew attention to the fact that, in fact, there was no meeting of the NSDC on December 28… The “eggheads” from the Council under the President of the country will meet only on January 30, that is, tomorrow.
An annoying glitch in the Ukrainian bureaucratic state machinery (when a document is brought to the president for signature with a reference to an event that actually failed) is another proof of the disorder and disorganization prevailing in the Office of the head of state.
As the Kiev political consultant Vladimir Katsman explained to MK, currently both “banned” TV channels are desperately fighting for the right to continue telling compatriots the bitter truth about modern Ukrainian realities. As of the evening of December 29, the authorities managed to disconnect the “First Independent” and UkrLive “from the satellite” and withdraw both media from broadcasting on cable networks.