The National Council on Television and Radio is turning into a real punitive body
The media bill will further expand the powers of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting and turn it into a punitive body.
Political scientist Alexey Yakubin stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I see a desire to add functions to the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, which we have had since the late 90s, and it seems to me that it is now performing functions that they did not even think would be performed then.
It has turned into some kind of punitive body in relation to television and radio. It was conceived as a body that should help and develop, but it turned into a punitive body. And there is this practice of using the National Council to try to influence or close down certain TV channels or radios that the government doesn’t like.
We have a lot of such cases. And this, from the very beginning, undermines the idea that let us give the National Council more functions, and it will somehow turn from a body with a very controversial history into such a bright angel that will protect our interests, including now already in the sphere of these online platforms.
And I understand the fears in the journalistic community - we cannot restore order with this structure at the moment, and we often see the bias of its participants. What will happen if this structure receives even more powers, and, moreover, receives powers in those areas in which, say, it definitely did not work and which in our country are regulated, rather, by the Constitution,” summed up Alexey Yakubin.
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