UKRAINE, Jul 21 — Media and civil society organizations asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, to veto the bill that sets penalties for “associating the lawyer with the client” in the official statement by the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law. 

On July 16, during the second reading, the Verkhovna Rada adopted bill project №12320, which, according to the statement, directly threatens freedom of speech and objective coverage of court cases in the media.

The bill sets administrative responsibility (fines of 3,700-5,100 hryvnias — about $88-$121) for “associating the lawyer with the client.” The note attached to the bill explains the reason for its establishment as “the rise in the number of criminal proceedings related to crimes, connected to the Russian Federation’s aggression.”

“Approval of this law makes journalistic work more difficult to mention lawyers and to criticize their method of defending the client in the content,” said the statement.

“Any criticism of the actions of lawyers who delay the hearings not with arguments and evidence, but with procedural delays, will be perceived as pressure on the lawyer. This will threaten the media, which is already threatened because of the war and the consequences for the economy.”

The Centre noted that these new norms will be a real problem for local media, which is in a vulnerable financial situation because of the consequences of the full-scale war and the shutdown of donor programs due to America freezing the USAID.

Community organizations and media, in addition to urging Zelenskyy to veto the bill, ask him to consult the Ministry of Justice and entrust them to sign the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, to then ratify it in the Parliament.

Also, the Center appealed to the lawyer community to use the mechanism of media self-regulation and actively react to journalistic investigations into lawyers’ deliberate delay of cases that violate the principle of the right to a fair trial.

Currently, a law that protects lawyers’ rights in Ukraine says lawyers can protect their reputation in court if they believe they were unfairly associated with their client. The Center notes that additional protections in legislation can be “only aimed at protecting a right to a fair trial.”

Ukrainian organizations and media that signed the statement are: Regional Press Development Institute, Ukrainian Media and Communication Institute, Souspilnist Foundation, National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, Commission on Journalism Ethics, Internews Ukraine, Digital Security Lab Ukraine, Detector media, and Institute of Mass Information community organizations.

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