MPs want to pass a bill that will prevent the media from working: details
28 November 2024 19:38
MPs want to consider a draft law that would allow security forces to conduct “covert” investigative actions against journalists and the media. Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, wrote about this on his Facebook page, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“While the Russians are finishing off our power system, the authorities are focused on … catching up with investigative journalists and their sources who, for example, handed over Tatarov’s trips to Russia to the media, or data on the luxurious life of the authorities,” Shabunin wrote.
He explained that this refers to draft law No. 10242, which the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement has recently reviewed and recommended for consideration in the session hall.
“The draft law cannot be voted for! The MPs propose to imprison for 8 years those who leak information from state registers (during the war). Now this is not a serious crime, the punishment for which is up to 2 years in prison (up to 5 years if it is committed repeatedly, or by a group, or if significant damage is caused). Thus, Ionushas turns it into a serious crime, which allows Tatarov’s law enforcement officers to conduct covert investigative actions, including against journalists and media,” the AntAC head is convinced.
Vitaliy Shabunin is sure that the current government needs draft law No. 10242 for one reason only – “to hide dirty laundry from investigative journalists (and, accordingly, from society), which is coming out more and more.”
In particular, he cites the recent investigations by Skhemy about Oleh Tatarov (it turned out that the statesman and politician flew to Moscow (Russia) 9 times after 2014) and former Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi (journalists found elite property in his possession) as examples.
What is known about draft law No. 10242
According to the authors of the draft law, its purpose is to establish criminal liability for unauthorized interference, sale or dissemination of information processed in public electronic registers and to increase criminal liability during martial law for criminal offenses in the use of information and communication systems.
According to them, the adoption of this draft law will establish criminal liability for unauthorized interference, sale or dissemination of information processed in public electronic registers and increase criminal liability during martial law for criminal offenses in the field of information and communication systems, expand the scope of law enforcement agencies’ activities to investigate criminal offenses under Articles 361, 361-1, 361-2, 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and increase
What the document proposes:
- in Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, part one shall be supplemented with a separate provision on interference with public electronic registers, part five shall be supplemented with a qualifying feature “commission of a crime by an official using his/her official position”, to supplement the note to the article with a new paragraph stating that public electronic registers in Articles 361, 361-2, 362, 363, 363-1 and 365-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine mean the basic and other registers defined in Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Public Electronic Registers”;
- to supplement part two of Article 3612 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with the qualifying feature “committing a crime by an official using his/her official position”;
- to supplement Articles 361-1, 361-2, 362 of the Criminal Code with new parts, which would provide for enhanced criminal liability for committing the relevant acts during martial law;
- to provide for criminal liability for: violation of the rules of operation of information and communication systems, including public electronic registers (amendments to Article 363 of the CC), obstruction of the operation of information and communication systems, including public electronic registers (amendments to Article 363-1 of the CC), abuse of authority by a public registrar or creator of the registration information of a public electronic register in order to obtain an unlawful benefit, if this caused significant damage to the rights or interests of the regional authorities protected by law.
It should be noted that the draft law was adopted as a basis by MPs in the first reading on January 16, 2024.
