Parliament of Ukraine failed the vote for draft law №8441 «On amendments to the Act on reforming the state and communal print media». This document was aimed on removing the key problems of press destatization, thus aiding the state-owned and communal media to reform.

Nevertheless, MPs were unable to enact this proposal, because of insufficient number of positive votes. Thus, the document will be returned to the Parliament Committee, delaying the legislation process.

The draft law №8441 was aimed on unblocking the reform of the state-owned and communal media. The key point of reform is to provide the independence of the medias from the authorities, transforming them into free press. The reform is to be finished at the end of this year, but up now only 260 newspapers from 752 have reformed.

At the same time, Verhovna Rada enacted the decision, which strictly opposes the idea of destatization. Draft law №6518 (approved in first reading) allows «Holos Ukrainy» and «Uriadovyi Kurier» state newspapers to avoid the reform. Thus, the medias keep working as usual, being under direct control of the authorities.

The full version of the material is currently available in Ukrainian.