(AP) – Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Nov. 17 prohibiting state authorities from carrying out inspections of media groups during Ukraine’s upcoming parliamentary election campaign.
Parliament also canceled part of a law that barred the media from editorializing about political forces during the campaign and empowered the Central Election Commission to close down any media outlet found in violation. Under the changes, the ground rules were loosened and only a court was given the right to shut down media violators.
The original law was adopted in response to last year’s bitter presidential election, during which losing candidate Viktor Yanukovych, backed by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, used state media to discredit his opponent, current President Viktor Yushchenko. Independent media faced stiff government pressure during the campaign.
Under the changes, media outlets not owned by political parties are barred from devoting more than 20 percent of their print space or air time to party propaganda.
Mykola Tomenko, a former vice prime minister, called the changes “an important victory for journalists over groundless restrictions.”
Ahead of the vote, about 30 journalists in executioner-style hoods hung an effigy symbolizing a newspaper outside the parliament building.
Ukraine holds parliamentary elections in March.
Also Nov. 17, parliament voted overwhelmingly to create a special committee to investigate allegations of pressure on journalists. The committee will, in particular, look into the beating of the editor of a Communist Party newspaper in the eastern city of Donetsk one week ago.
The commission will also investigate the firebombing of a car owned by a celebrity tabloid editor, which came ahead of the planned publication of vacation photographs of Yushchenko’s teenage son.
Both attacks remain unsolved.
It was unclear when Yushchenko, who praised the new legislation, would sign the bill into law.
