Bill on mass media to be considered by relevant committee on December 23

The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy is going to consider the media draft law on December 23 at its meeting, as Detektor Media reported.

On December 11, the bill was submitted for closed-door consideration at the committee, as the chairman of the committee Oleksandr Tkachenko told.

"Then I ask to work as efficiently as possible on the relevant subcommittee headed by Mykyta Poturaev in order to discuss the project at the regular meeting of the Committee on December 23," Oleksander Tkachenko said.

In a comment to “Detektor Media”, the member of the committee Yuriy Pavlenko said that there was no discussion on the bill as such.

"The Chairman of the Committee said that the text had been sent to us, asked to discuss all details at the Poturaev subcommittee sitting, and then formally approve it at the meeting on December 23," Pavlenko said, adding that he was indignant at such a secretive process of preparing such an important law for the media.

“I would be interested to hear the experts' opinion, to discuss certain issues with the professionals. And here is a complete mystery, even a turbo mode, ” Yuriy Pavlenko said.

As IMI reported, on November 20, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Information Policy submitted the bill on mass media for consideration closed-door in the parliament.

The bill has a controversial clause on equating bloggers with the mass media, and if so, how many subscribers must be and it will raise question not only on taxation, but on content as well.

On November 13, the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of the Verkhovna Rada, debated the new concept of the “Law on Mass Media” to be elaborated.

The Servant of People faction is elaborating the bill on media that proposes to regulate the media and social networks.

The “Institute of Mass Information” together with “Media Detector” have prepared its suggestions on the most important spheres of the media bill's applicability - about audiovisual media services (mass media code).

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