On August 26, following a sitting of the preparatory group on the work of the Verkhovna Rada, a representative of the "Opposition Platform - For Life" party, Vadym Rabinovych, announced , that his faction had been offered to head the Freedom of Speech Committee.
Leaders and members of this political force have repeatedly been noticed using their controlled media to manipulate public opinion and to spread propaganda, including the pro-Russian. For example, one of the leaders of "Opposition Platform - For Life" - Viktor Medvedchuk - is known to consistently promote the interests of the aggressor country in Ukraine, in particular through manipulation and censorship in media as a matter of fact controlled by him, as evidenced by numerous monitoring by media NGOs. Monitoring by Detector Media non-governmental organization regularly confirms that 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZIK, owned by "Opposition Platform - For Life" representative Taras Kozak, a close associate of Medvedchuk, literally reproduce propaganda messages, broadcasted by Russian federal media. The same TV channels have become the carriers of hate speech and gender stereotypes, and they also resort to gross manipulation of the freedom of speech protection topic.
The TV channel of another elected people's deputy and member of the "Opposition Platform - For Life", Serhiy Liovochkin - Inter - was also used for the massive, obtrusive and aggressive PR-campaign of this political force. According to a report by Detector Media, during the parliamentary elections, Inter spoke more about "Opposition Platform - For Life" than all other political forces together, and newscasts covered "Opposition Platform - For Life" candidates' campaign trips and statements in press-service mode. In general, this channel is one of the leaders in the distribution of news with signs of advertorial: for 2018, 38% of all such materials were broadcasted on Inter.
According to the monitoring by Media Detector, the Council of Europe, National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, the program policies of TV channels owned by members of "Opposition Platform - For Life" were aimed at promoting the interests of this political force during the 2019 presidential and parliamentary election campaigns. We would also like to remind that such editorial policies and flagrant violations of journalistic ethics on the channels of "Opposition Platform - For Life" members led to the largest mass resignation of journalists from ZIK TV channel in Ukrainian history following the announcement of the purchase of the TV channel by an "Opposition Platform - For Life" representative in June 2019.
Members of the "Opposition Platform - For Life" party were part of the Party of Regions and many of them personally voted for "dictatorial laws" on January 16, 2014, which, among other things, imposed restrictions on freedom of speech.
The Media Movement calls on the newly elected parties, and above all the presidential political force - the "People's Servant" party - to prevent a representative of the "Opposition Platform - For Life", whose members use controlled media for propaganda and manipulation, and are directly involved in the suppression of freedom of expression, from heading the Freedom of Speech committee. We call on other factions to nominate and the "People's Servant" faction to support the appointment of a reputable media player who has the trust of the media community as a head of the committee.
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We would like to remind that on February 5, the creation of the "Journalists for a Conscious Choice" Media Movement - which was designed to provide citizens with the opportunity to elect the President and the Parliament on the basis of complete and reliable information - was announced in Ukraine The leading Ukrainian media - TV channels, radio stations, print and online media - as well as media NGOs joined the Media Movement. The first signatories to the Media Movement's memorandum were UA: Pershyi, Ukrainian Radio, Hromadske Radio [Public Radio], Ukrinform IA, Interfax-Ukraine IA, Liga.net, Dzerkalo Tyzhnya. Ukraine, Novoye Vremya, Censor.Net, Channel 5, The Ukrainian Week, Opinion, a number of regional media, NGOs Independent Media Council, Detector Media, Mass Information Institute, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Souspilnist Foundation, the Independent Association of Broadcasters, the Donetsk Institute of Information, the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, the Zmina Human Rights Center and other organizations, individual journalists - over 70 participants in total.
You can join or support the Media Movement by contacting its Coordinator Vadym Myskiy: vadim.miskyi@gmail.com.
