MPs appointed new member of National council

The Parliament appointed Maxym Onopriyenko as member of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting. This decision was voted for by 233 MPs, as to the website of parliament. Maxym Onopriyenko is the CEO of the Zaporizhzhya TV and radio company TV5, nominated by the All-Ukrainian Association of Broadcasters of Communities. The TV5 TV channel belongs to the Zaporozhye metallurgical complex "Zaporizhstal" (the final beneficial owner is Rinat Akhmetov). On November 21st, 2018, members of the Parliament Committee on freedom of speech and information policy recommended to the parliament to consider six candidates, among them, in particular, the candidacy of Onopriyenko. As IMI reported, on May 4th, Yuriy Artemenko resigned as a member of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting. On May 4, Petro Poroshenko dismissed Artemenko from the post of member of the National Council, appointing Volodymyr Gorkovenko as a member of the National Council. On May 7th, Petro Poroshenko appointed Yuriy Artemenko as a member of the National Commission, which is charged to fulfill state regulation of communication and informatization. On May 10th, Olga Herasimyuk, the first deputy chairman of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, refused to open the sitting of the National Council, saying that dismissal of the chairman of the National Council of Yuriy Artemenko raised questions. On May 21st, the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting failed to have sitting, due to the absence of a quorum. On May 22nd, five members of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting proposed to hold the sitting on May 28th. The appeal was signed by members of the National Council Volodymyr Gorkovenko, Alexander Ilyashenko, Valentin Koval, Sergei Kostinsky and Ulyana Feschuk. On May 23rd, Olga Herasimyuk, the first deputy chairman of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, said that she had no legal grounds to convene the sitting of the regulator agency on May 28th. On May 24th, the President Volodymyr Zelensky cancelled decree appointing Volodymyr Gorkovenko as a member of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting. On May 24th, the President Volodymyr Zelensky cancelled the decree on dismissal of Yuriy Artemenko from the position of a member of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting and dismissed Artemenko from the position of a member of the National Commission. May 24th, deputy chairman of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council Ulyana Feschuk informed that the National Council would appeal to the Parliament asking to elect the eighth member of the regulator agency to unblock the functionning of the National Council.