Poturayev: Committee on Humanitarian Policy plans to overhaul the law to solve the Ukrinform problem

Mykyta Poturayev, chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy. Photo by Ukrinform

The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy plans to overhaul the bill on the International Multimedia Broadcasting Platform later in the year, which would allow solving the problems with the state news agency Ukrinform, according to the monitoring of the work of the Humanitarian and Information Policy Committee for the first half of 2024, released by "Detector Media".

The Committee also plans to complete the amendments to laws on media and advertising and the bill packages on culture, cultural heritage, and museums.

The Committee's chair Mykyta Poturayev hopes to reach "concrete solutions on social media security and on commemorating events, heroes and victims of the war" by the end of the year.

"We also plan to hold a second vote on the draft bill on tourism and outdoor advertising. We have started talks with potential partners on reforming the law on the International Multimedia Broadcasting Platform, which would allow, among other things, to resolve the problems with the state news agency Ukrinform, which have recently gotten under scrutiny from both Ukraine's civil society and our international partners," he said.

Yet, Poturayev added that no specific agreements have been reached, so the Committee has not yet started taking practical steps in this direction. He hopes for certain developments in this regard in autumn of 2024.

Deputy Mykola Knyazhytsky noted that Ukraine currently has many problems in the information sphere.

"It is obviously not normal for a country fighting a war to allocate state money for an international broadcasting platform that is not an international broadcasting platform. It is obvious that there cannot be such situations as what we saw at Ukrinform in a European democracy. It is obvious that the state funding oligarch-owned media and using them as a propaganda machine where access to the opposition is prohibited must be stopped. There are many problems and much to do. I am not saying 'all is bad, all is lost.' But there must be an awareness that after all that we have experienced in recent years, Ukraine and Ukrainians have changed," added Mykola Knyazhytsky.

On May 29, "Ukrainian Pravda" released the article "No outisders around. How the President's Office is taking control over Ukrinform", reporting that during his time as the director of the news agency Ukrinform, journalist Oleksiy Matsuka, who is considered a protege of the President's Office, introduced censorship, "topic guidelines", and planned to overhaul the agency so as to appoint the "right" people to certain positions.

On June 21, 2024, the chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, said that the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy was preparing amendments to the Ukrinform charter on creating an independent supervisory board.

The director of the Institute of Mass Information, Oksana Romaniuk, believes that changes to the Ukrinform charter are not enough – they must first be introduced to the laws.