Parliamentary Committee to appeal to Zelensky over Pryamyy FM
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech intends to appeal to President Volodymyr Zelensky due to withdrawal of the license of the Pryammy FM radio station.
The chairman of the committee Nestor Shufrich (Opposition Platform - For Life faction) said it at the sitting of the committee on September 14, as Ukrinform reported.
"I am very concerned about the developments around with free speech. Once again, the National Council, the representative of the National Council Yuri Zinevych, by the way, who has been appointed by President Zelensky, pledged faith that the Pryamyy FM’s license would not be revoked. The next day, the license was withdrawn. We will consider this issue on Wednesday (on the committee). And I do not exclude that we will propose to the President to replace Mr. Zinevych as the person who misled the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, " Shufrich said.
As IMI reported, September 8, Pryamyy TV filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting for revoking the license of Pryamyy FM radio.
As IMI reported, on September 3, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting revoked the license of Pryamyy FM (a subsidiary of Pryamyy TV channel) to broadcast in six cities, as the radio did not broadcast on two frequencies in the space of one year after having obtaimed the license.
On November 9, 2018, Pryamyy FM got a broadcasting license in six settlements (Marhanets, Pavlohrad, Melitopol, Bila Tserkva, Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Lubny).
During the inspection based on the monitoring on December 3 and 5, 2019, the National Council recorded the absence of broadcasting on two frequencies - in Marhanets and Lubny.
Representatives of "Pryamyy FM" believe that the broadcaster received six licenses, not one, and the National Council on its own initiative combined six frequencies into one license form.
Representatives of "Pryamyy FM" also reported that the broadcaster had some technical difficulties with the development of two frequencies in Manganets and Lubny.
Members of the National Council tried to find out when the company realized that it could not master all the frequencies. It was found out that it happened in December 2019 (then the company applied for the removal of two frequencies), although in November the one-year deadline for the start of broadcasting expired. That is, according to members of the National Council, the company was late in appealing abour its unability to broadcast on two frequencies.
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