Freedom of Speech in Ukraine?

[AC]

This article deals with freedom of speech in Ukraine and attempts to enact revisionist history by some.  Of course this is open to interpretation based on ones politics.  From my POV it's nice to be on the outside looking in as it's much easier to be objective.

excerpt
The measures sparked a sharp response from some of the world's top scholars on Eastern European history. They would make it a crime to deny the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's role in the fight for Ukrainian independence or to deny the "criminal nature of the communist totalitarian regime," but the scholars say those provisions threaten Ukraine's ability to honestly debate its most difficult periods in history.

In an open letter to Poroshenko signed by 69 academics from Canada, the United States and Europe, they urged the Ukrainian president to veto the bills. "Difficult and contentious issues must remain matters of debate," the letter said."


http://www.vagazette.com/la-fg-ukraine-decommunization-20150513,0,3576950.story

[AC]

Another POV about the legislation.


excerpt

But others, like Halyna Coynash, a journalist and member of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, said some measures risk reverting to the censorship of the communist era. She sees particular danger in a measure that forbids any positive assessment of the Soviet era.

"They have ended up with a law that seriously endangers freedom of speech," Coynash said.

Dismantling Soviet emblems and renaming streets named in honor of figures known to have been part of the Soviet Union's machine of repression has garnered a wide approval. But misgivings abound.

"Saying that people cannot themselves wear a red star or even have a hammer-and-sickle on their clothing," Coynash said, "is really quite absurd."

Repeated violations could result in prison sentences lasting several years, also a source of anxiety.

"Imprisonment for up to five years for any display of Nazi or communist symbols is manifestly and undeniably in breach of international human rights standards," Volodymyr Yavorsky, an expert with Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, wrote in an article analyzing the laws."


http://www.pantagraph.com/news/world/europe/hammer-and-sick-of-it-ukraine-tries-to-ditch-communist/article_c697c069-c684-59dd-a636-a25cc93f9a6d.html