New Ukrainian Media Law Nationalistic, Anti-Russian, European MP Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ukraine's new censorship legislation that enables Kiev to shut down any news media is part of the current government's nationalistic policies aimed primarily at eliminating Russian heritage and rewriting history, Thierry Mariani, a French member of the European parliament, told Sputnik.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a controversial media law that gave the Ukrainian authorities the right to fine and close any broadcaster, newspaper or website if they do not like their information content.

"Censorship of the media is not new in Ukraine. The best way to apply the regime's nationalistic policies is to control the press, just like in the good old days of the Soviet Union. Mr Zelensky knows it and is deepening censorship, with some opposition in the Rada [the Ukrainian parliament] though," Mariani said.

The French expert explained that the Ukrainian government decided to adopt the law as it wants to eradicate the Russian language, despite it being the mother tongue of a large part of the country's population.

"All administrative acts everywhere, even in such cities as Odessa or Dnepr, must be in Ukrainian, even if 99% of the population speaks Russian only, for some 300 years at least… Is this democracy?" Mariani said.

The lawmaker recalled that Kiev's intention to ban the Russian language in schools was one of the reasons behind the upheaval in Donbass in 2014. This "spiral" is not new but it is getting much worse now, Mariani said. This time, Kiev is set on destroying the country's history, as proved by the dismantling of a monument to Russian Empress Catherine the Great in Odessa — the 'pearl of the Black Sea' that was actually built by her, he added.

"Zelensky is every day on television to deliver his truth, and his propaganda is passed on as truth by all the subsidized Western media: no conditional to the figures and announcements of Zelensky. It is the new Gospel. Like Jesus, Zelensky transforms water in wine. It is open bar for him and his government in the West. Very few are the journalists who dare contradict the oracle," the French politician told Sputnik.

Mariani also said it was difficult to voice a dissenting view with everyone defending Zelensky and the Ukrainian government. In particular, the vast majority in the European parliament have voted for the resolution that declares a famine that struck parts of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, in the 1930s as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.

"I was one of those who opposed this vote. The famine was general in the agricultural regions of the Soviet Union at the time and indeed millions died. But the famine was due to the de-kulakisation of agriculture decided by [Soviet era leader Joseph] Stalin. It was general in the Soviet Union and not aimed at Ukraine. So this European resolution is based on a lie, a total fake," Mariani told Sputnik.

Ukraine's media law has faced criticism from journalists and human rights activists at the initial stages of its consideration. Ricardo Gutierrez, the head of the European Federation of Journalists, called provisions of the document "coercive" and "worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes" back in July. The Committee to Protect Journalists also urged Ukrainian legislators to revise the law that "threatens to restrict press freedom in the country and would move it away from European Union standards."