Ministry of culture denied accreditation to several journalists for public debate on misinformation bill

50-60 journalists, media representatives and international organizations will take part in the discussion of the misinformation bill, as the Ministry of Culture of Youth and Sports said. In total, the ministry received about 200 applications.

The press service of the Ministry of Culture told Detektor Media that the format of the event and the premises could not allow a large number of people attend it.

“So, some of the applicants (about 200 people) were refused. A strategic session is effective with 50-60 people attending. This is the number of participants who will take part in. The organizers aimed to do it in a sort that different stakeholders would be represented there. Obviously, when it comes to choose between a UN representative and, for example, NGO “Zaborona”, the decision could be made in favor of the former organization. In oddition, it was important to gather the participants so that the media, media lawyers, international organizations, etc. were present, ” the ministry said.

The editor of “Zaborona” Yuliana Skibitska, coordinator with the Center “Action-Kramatorsk” Andriy Romanenko , journalist of “Aktualna Pravda” NGO Serhiy Medianik reported on Facebook that the Ministry of Culture had denied them accreditation for the meeting. Andriy Romanenko told that they did not accredit the journalist and the head of the agency “Vchasno” Mariya Davydenko, CitySites editor-in-chief Anna Murlykina and editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Azazovsky Rabochy” Olena Kalaytan.

As IMI reported, on January 20, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports invited mass media community to take part in public debates around the misinformation bill that is to be held on January 28^th.

On January 27, representatives of the media community and public organizations recommended that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports refrain from submitting the bill on misinformation for consideration in the parliament.

On January 27, the Commission of Journalistic Ethics (CJE) issued a statement calling on the government and the Ministry of Culture to revoke the so-called misinformation bill and to resume drafting legislative changes from the scratch.

On January 21, the NGO "Institute of Mass Information" has prepared a brief analysis of the so-called "misinformation bill" that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports has published on its website.  After having read the bill, IMI recommended the MPs not to vote for, and to the Ministry not to  submit the bill to the parliament, as the document contains some ambiguous norms that are unacceptable in a democracy.

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