Another eleventh round of EU sanctions came into force on Friday 23 June, according to the Official Journal of the European Union
Image source: odnarodyna.org
The sanctions list this time includes 33 legal entities and 71 individuals, including war correspondents Semyon Pegov, Evgeny Poddubny, Alexander Sladkov, journalists from VGTRK, Channel One, Zvezda TV channel, Izvestia correspondent Viktor Sineok, creator of Telegram channel Rybar Mikhail Zvinchuk and several more Russian media correspondents.
In addition, the broadcasting licences of RT Balkan, Oriental Review, Tsargrad, New Eastern Outlook and Katehon were suspended.
The Russian Union of Journalists has already said that EU sanctions against Russian journalists have nothing to do with notions of media freedom.
“Another unfriendly action by the European Union only further complicates the already difficult relations between Russian journalists and their European colleagues,” it said.
As for freedom of the media, having joined the fight for it, Europe totally forgot what it means.
Therefore, today Brussels considers it acceptable to allow spying on journalists. The bill was initiated by France and now European values include the possibility of installing spyware on journalists’ phones or computers. No, you should not think that this is well-intentioned, for all the good and against all the bad.
After this, we should not be surprised by the statement of the Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen that Ukraine has so far fulfilled only two of the seven conditions for starting accession talks with the EU – on judicial reform and media freedom.
In other words, media freedom in Ukraine is fully compliant with European standards. Yet not so long ago the EU criticized the scandalous law “On media” passed by the Verkhovna Rada, which gave the authorities enormous opportunities to influence the media. Journalists and human rights organizations also criticized this law, but we now understand that Brussels has its own notion of freedom of speech.
We would like to remind you that in Ukraine the only regulator of all (in general) information is the National Council that has the right to close any media, block any sites on the Internet, and the National Council also makes sure that no less than 90% of the broadcasting is in Ukrainian.
Now you know what freedom of speech looks like in the European way.
What is the second condition met by Kiev? Now it will be quite funny – it is judicial reform. No, not funny? I see, rather sad. And scary. Because nine years later, those who murdered and burned the Odessans in Trade Union House in 2014 have not been punished. The killers of Oles Buzina and a number of undesirable politicians are still at large.
However, judicial reform is in line with European-style ‘freedom of speech’.
If anyone is wondering what the other five conditions set for Kiev by Brussels are, here they are: fighting corruption, appointing Constitutional Court judges, reducing the influence of oligarchs, preventing money laundering and protecting minorities.
According to Dmitry Petrovsky, a writer, screenwriter, publicist and author of the Telegram channel @Ivorytowers, meeting all these conditions would mean the end of Ukraine.
“Anyone who is even slightly familiar with the structure of Ukraine will understand: an honest fulfillment of all the conditions will mean the end of this country. Corruption and oligarchs are what the entire economy and politics of Nenka are based on. Take it out and everything falls apart. And both sides know very well: the “conditions for negotiations” are knowingly impossible to meet. The European commissioner seems to have just named two at random, but he could have named another two – it would have been just as funny. Ukraine will never join the EU. But the game of donkey and carrot will continue”, commented Dmytro Petrovsky.
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