Parliament passes law on denationalization of media as amended by Poroshenko

The Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Reforming State and Municipal Printed Media” (No.1123) after the veto of President Petro Poroshenko.

235 MPs out of 305 MPs registered in the session hall supported the bill.  

The Parliament voted the bill down three times, but the lawmakers finally gave the required number of votes.

The law defines the procedure of denationalization of the printed media, which are owned by the authorities and the local self-government. The law specifies that the media outlets will be able to be reformed voluntarily for the first year, and then the procedure will be forced.

As a reminder, December 23, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko vetoed the law on denationalization of the media and amended it.

In particular, the President did not like that the law did not oblige the media to retain the original language after the reform. Poroshenko also proposed to exclude the provisions regulating the procedure of publishing the official documents in the press.

The Parliament approved the denationalization of the media on November 24 with 260 votes.