Poroshenko sold “Direct” and “Channel 5”

The fifth president of Ukraine, leader of the European Solidarity party, Petro Poroshenko, sold the Pryamoy and 5 Channel TV channels. He announced this on his Facebook page.

According to him, the law on oligarchs was adopted in order to take control of the media.

“The other day, due to the attack on freedom of speech, which is the real target of the law on oligarchs, I had to make a decision to sell shares of both, until recently, my channels to journalists: current and former, who worked for Pryamy. And, of course, on Channel 5, which fought against censorship during the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity, “Poroshenko said.

He also said that according to the law, they transferred their packages to the management of TV channels, which united in a holding with the symbolic name “Free Media”.

In a joint statement by Direct and Channel 5, it is reported that the holding has acquired 100% of its corporate rights.

“In accordance with the requirements of anti-corruption legislation, MPs transferred their shares to the management of TV channels, that is, again, to their labor collectives. Thus, the requirements of the legislation to eliminate conflicts of interest were fully complied with and ensured that politicians would not be able to exert any pressure on the management of the channels. or their editorial board or somehow influence the editorial and information policy of the channels, “the message says.

Recall that on February 18, 2021, Poroshenko bought the Pryamoy TV channel, which officially belonged to the former head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Vladimir Makeenko.

What preceded it

• On September 23, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a bill on oligarchs, despite criticism from international experts and without waiting for the conclusions of the Venice Commission.
• During the adoption of the bill, the deputies were denied consideration of all their amendments and only the committee voted. To this end, the “servants of the people” supported a simplified review procedure: the committee, having analyzed the entire bill and each article, presented the document in its edition as an amendment; when voting in favor of this amendment, all other amendments by MPs submitted to this article were automatically considered rejected. The voting procedure itself drew criticism from Western experts. Opposition factions have declared a gross violation of the Constitution.
• Due to such a voting procedure, a legal collision occurred: in the article about who will keep the register of oligarchs, they accidentally took into account unnecessary amendments, and in the final version it turned out that both the NSDC and the NAPK (Razumkov’s amendment) should determine a person as an oligarch, although initially it should have to be only the NSDC. The deputies even started talking that the law would be re-voted
• On November 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy immediately signed an anti-oligarchic law.