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Ukraine lawmakers call for investigation into media scandal – Times of India

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KYIV: Ukrainian lawmakers and journalists called on prosecutors Thursday to investigate an alleged censorship scandal in the country’s state news agency Ukrinform, raising the sensitive issue of press freedom in wartime.
Ukraine, battling a Russian invasion for over two years, has said it is committed to making reforms such as in media freedom requested for integration with the West, including the European Union.
Several Ukrainian media outlets accused the former head of Ukrinform, Oleksiy Matsuka, of having presided over an editorial policy exclusively backing the presidential administration.
Fears then grew over Ukrinform’s impartiality after Matsuka was replaced by a military spokesman.
“I am preparing appropriate appeals to the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting and the Prosecutor General’s Office,” Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, the head of a parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, said on social media.
“Any pressure on the media is unacceptable.”
Ukrainian journalists have in recent months upped their criticism of attempts by president Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s office to increase control over the information space.
Yurchyshyn told AFP an investigation “must establish” if presidential officials were directly involved in pressuring media organisations.
Matsuka stepped down from his role in Ukrinform earlier this week, with newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reporting the move came after Western embassies became aware of how Ukrinform was run.
Ukrinform had undergone a huge transformation after massive pro-EU demonstrations that began in 2013 and led to the ouster of a government accused of widespread corruption and putting pressure on the media.
Eyebrows were further raised when officials announced that former army spokesman, Sergiy Cherevaty, would take over Ukrinform.
Culture minister Rostyslav Karandieiev said the news agency plays a key role in the war with Russia.
He said Ukrinform should work towards “renewing and strengthening” international attention on Ukraine in the face of some “war fatigue” in the West.
Censorship is a sensitive topic in Ukraine, since Kyiv portrays itself as the opposite to its enemy Russia, which has stifled press freedoms, jailed independent journalists and forced prominent media groups into exile.
“Putting pressure on journalists is a crime,” lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko said, likening the allegations to practises that were criticised as routine under former, pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in 2014.





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