Roundtable discussion: “Threats to freedom of speech due to amendments to legislation”

On January 30, at 13:00, Ukraine Crisis Media Center hosted a discussion on the draft laws submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by representatives of the current Ukrainian government: “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Ensuring National Information Security and the Right to Access Reliable Information” and “On Media”.

As a result of the discussion, an editorial group was set up to prepare an open-signature appeal to the drafters of the bills, the Verkhovna Rada, and the President of Ukraine.

Yuriy Mindyuk, President of the Foundation for Support of Democratic Initiatives, made an introductory speech on behalf of the event organizer.

The discussion was attended by:

• Halyna Petrenko, director of Detector Media NGO.
• Roman Golovenko, Head of Legal Department at the Institute of Mass Information.
• Dmytro Zolotukhin, Institute of Post-Information Society, former Deputy Minister of Information Policy.
• Maksym Tulliev, Head of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedom of Speech at the Internet Association of Ukraine.
• Nadiya Sukha, investigative journalist, Center for Joint Action.
• Liudmyla Fomenko, lawyer, ICTV channel.
• Petro Okhotin, political expert.
• Nestor Volya, blogger.
• Yuriy Honcharenko, civic activist, vice president of the Foundation for Support of Democratic Initiatives.

The event was moderated by media expert Vladyslav Vasyl, Foundation for Support of Democratic Initiatives.

Topics for discussion:

1. Unconstitutional and discriminatory provisions of the Borodyansky/Tkachenko bills. Should we introduce strict regulation of the Ukrainian media today?
2. What are the immediate threats to the media, journalists, civic activists, bloggers, citizens, and social media users from the implementation of the proposed draft laws? Does the possible positive impact of their adoption outweigh the possible risks?
3. How to prevent the spread of disinformation without violating the rights of citizens. Whether it is possible in principle to restrict the dissemination of false information by law. Technical aspects of implementing such restrictions.
4. The creation of the Association of Professional Journalists, the state classification of media, the trust index, and a single press card are the pros and cons of these innovations.
5. Preparing an appeal to the initiators of the draft laws and parliamentary political forces.

The participants concluded that it is very important that such changes to the legislation are not adopted without a detailed discussion in the professional community.

Of course, the fight against distorted information is one of the components of national security. Therefore, the development of national legislation in this area is long overdue. On the other hand, we should not allow freedom of speech and the possibility of criticizing the actions of the authorities to be suppressed under the guise of fighting fakes.

Reasoned comments were made to the draft laws under discussion, and an editorial group was set up to draft a joint document that will be sent to both the drafters of the document and those who are to vote for it.

Video broadcast: https://youtu.be/RVnAQJdtZvw

A separate media briefing will be held on the results.

The secretary of the editorial group is Yuriy Honcharenko, vice president of the Foundation for Support of Democratic Initiatives.

Contacts of the organizers: [email protected]