Zakarpattia: Candidate of the United Opposition Not Given Newspaper Space

Svaliava, Volovets, and Perechyn courts declared the acts of the media Visti Svaliavshchyny (The News of Svaliava Raion), Holos Verkhovyny (The Voice of Verkhovyna), and Narodne Slovo (The People's Word) unlawful concerning a candidate for People's Deputy of Ukraine. The reason was the refusal of their editors to enter into a contract for the provision of area for election campaigning of the candidate in the single-mandate election district No.70 Oleksandr Kemeniash.

The media reasoned the refusal by the fact that they had already contracted another political party and another majoritarian candidate for advertising. Thus, the newspapers had used 20% of the newspaper space, and the Law of Ukraine On Advertising doesn't allow to provide more space for campaigning.

In the response of Volovets raion newspaper — Holos Verkhovyny, it is clearly stated that they have already entered into a contract for advertising with the political force of the Party of Regions, and the candidate of the same party in district No.70 — Mykhailo Lanio.

In its rulings, the court sustained the claim of the candidate and ordered the editors of the newspapers to provide the area to Oleksandr Kemeniash immediately on a contract basis. Instead, the media have lodged an appeal to Lviv Administrative Court of Appeal therefore the decisions of the trial court haven't come into force so far.

'Courts of appeals will consider applications promptly so we hope to receive the confirmation of unlawfulness of the acts of the media in Lviv shortly as well. Furthermore, in their refusals, the papers refer to the Law on Advertising ignoring the Law of Ukraine On Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine. Its Articles 68 and 71 guarantee equal rights for publication on equal terms to all candidates and parties. Furthermore, Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine on Advertising says that the document doesn't apply to legal relations concerning the interests of parties. In any case, we have good court practice of winning so we are hoping for success in these cases.

Currently, the issue of cooperation between Oleksandr Kemeniash with Mizhhirya (Novyny Verkhovyny) and Velykyi Bereznyi (Karpatska Zirka – The Carpathian Star) raion newspapers still remains unresolved. We hope that their editors will be more honest before the law and people at whose expense they exist, otherwise we will have to turn to Themis again,' the candidate's agent commented on the situation.

Reference:

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