Ukraine: OSCE Concerned About New Cinema Law
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic has warned that recent legislative steps in Ukraine could limit free media and the free flow of information.
On April 20, President Petro Poroshenko signed amendments to the law on cinema banning all Russian films made after January 1, 2014. It also bans movies produced by Russia after 1991 if they “glorify the work of government bodies” of Russia.
Mijatovic said in a statement on April 22 that “Ukraine’s current significant progress in the area of media freedom should be preserved and enhanced, not undermined.”
Relations between Ukraine and Russia soured after street protests in Kyiv toppled President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally, in February 2014. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and threw its support behind separatists in the country’s east.
