Media Union supports law protecting journalists’ sources.

The Independent Media Union of Ukraine is calling on MPs to support a draft law № 8256, on amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code on affirming journalists’ right to not reveal their sources.  The bill is scheduled for first reading on 12 January.

The Union writes that “there have been cases where journalists have been subjected to unwarranted attacks by the law enforcement agencies demanding that they revel their sources of information. There have been cases where the police carried out unlawful searches in journalists’ homes, and removed technology which the journalists were using to work on.”

The bill it says will protect journalists from such infringements and therefore promote freedom of speech in Ukraine.

The draft law proposes adding journalists to the list of people who cannot be interrogated as witnesses over what they were entrusted with or became known in the course of their professional activities.

It also proposes a reworded version of Article 182-1 of the CPC regarding the conditions for carrying out searches of journalist premises, and removal of material These ensure that any application for a search warrant must state that the person searched is a journalist, as well as explanation for why it is important to establish the truth in the case