Lawyers are not ready, Bragar is gone: journalist Lesnoy spoke about the meeting of the Committee on Freedom of Speech on censorship at the telethon

A meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech was held regarding political censorship at the telethon.

Journalist Evgeny Lesnoy reported this in his blog on Detector Media.

“The reason was an appeal from the deputies from “European Solidarity”, who drew attention to my publication in “Media Detector”. In this blog, I described my experience of working for a year and a half on one of the national TV channels as part of the “United News Marathon”. In particular, the presence of political censorship on the air. It was for this reason that the management of the TV channels producing and broadcasting the marathon called me. But instead of the managers, lawyers came. Perhaps next time I will send someone instead of myself, so as not to waste time!” – Lesnoy said.

He noted that the current composition of the Committee is Chairman Yaroslav Yurchyshyn from “Voice” and Yevhen Bragar from “Servant of the People”. And if at least one of them is absent, there will be no quorum. Both representatives of the Committee were present at the beginning of the meeting. Also present were deputies from “EU” Iryna Gerashchenko and Sofia Fedina.

“The meeting began with a speech by Irina Gerashchenko. As the applicant, she demanded to find out why the opposition representatives were not shown on the air of the telethon. She referred to the monitoring of “Media Detector”: in 2025, no EU MPs appeared on the air even once.” censorship. It seemed that everything was going well. voice addressed to me. I also have a loud voice – I answered him powerfully, but correctly. Then Bragar took offense: “The meeting is closed!”, left the hall.

However, although there was no quorum, Yurchyshyn continued the meeting. And then there was communication with the lawyers of the TV channels participating in the telethon.

“When Irina Gerashchenko asked why there were no opposition MPs in the marathon, the Inter lawyer replied: “I can neither confirm nor deny.” The 1+1 lawyer tried to remember something, saying that someone was shown, but there were no specifics. The representative of “We Are Ukraine” repeated: the StarLightMedia lawyer allowed herself to ironically state: “Censorship is when journalists are forced to show MPs.” And she remained silent about the argument that MPs represent voters and society,” the journalist noted.

Lesnoy also reported that the Rada TV channel sent a letter in which it noted that “there is enough of everyone on the air. Both the government and the opposition.”

“And so the meeting ended – with nothing to show for it. The TV channel lawyers are not ready, the committee is incompetent, Bragar has left. The question remains: what does the deputy who ultimately disrupts his own meeting receive his salary for? Yurchyshyn might want to change something, but the mono-majority is not interested in even the appearance of protecting freedom of speech,”

Let us recall that Ukrainian journalist Yevgeny Lesnoy, in his blog for Detector Media, told about his one-and-a-half-year experience working on the national telethon “Edinye Novosti”. The media professional reported that in February 2024 he came to work for one of the unnamed TV channels participating in “Edinye Novosti”. Lesnoy says that the editor-in-chief constantly asked who exactly he was planning to film, and one of the channel’s hosts advised him to “play by the rules”, in particular when choosing experts. According to him, the topic of “European Solidarity” was completely banned, which the channel’s management directly informed him of: “They have their own TV channels – you can’t come here.” Despite this, the journalist tried to invite experts loyal to the political force, in particular such as the aforementioned Yaroslav Kuts or political scientist Yevgeny Magda. “However, each appearance of an undesirable expert was a struggle. Arguments with editors became a common occurrence,” Lesnoy noted, adding that all communication in the editorial office took place exclusively in Russian. The journalist emphasized that the marathon does not welcome speakers who criticize the government, and approval for expert comments often came “from above.”