The State Language Protection Commissioner Taras Kremin notes that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adviser to the head of the Presidential Office Oleksii Arestovych and Chairman of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration-Head of the Regional Military Administration Vitalii Kim violated the law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language, according to which fines of up to UAH 12,000 are provided.
This is stated in the message of the State Language Protection Commissioner on the website, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
It is stated that the review of the use of the state language by officials was carried out from March 1 to June 30 by a sample survey of broadcasting, official pages of central executive authorities, local self-government bodies, military administrations, on the Internet platforms YouTube, Facebook, Telegram, as well as through a search for key requests with the names of the heads of bodies and their deputies on YouTube.
According to the review report, for the most part, the working language of the activities of state authorities, local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions and organizations of state and communal forms of ownership was the state language.
At the same time, the use of non-state language is recorded in the activities of some officials of local councils, heads of military administrations, heads of public utilities. Cases of the use of non-state language occurred both on television and on the pages of social networks and Telegram channels. Thus, communication in the non-state language by 8 heads of military administrations, 15 officials of local self-government bodies, 2 heads of communal ownership institutions was recorded.
In particular, the language law was violated by Zelenskyy, Arestovych, Kim, adviser to the Minister of Interior Affairs of Ukraine Anton Herashchenko, head of the Kryvyi Rih City Military Administration Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration-head of the Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai, Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov, Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov, Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov.
For example, it is noted that the President violated the language law during a meeting with foreign guests - British businessman Richard Branson on June 29 and actor and director Sean Penn on June 28.
The Ombudsman notes that there are significantly fewer cases of the use of non-state language on television channels than in March and April of this year, but some officials continue to violate the language law.
"Since July 16, such actions can have consequences in the form of administrative penalties - warnings and fines," says Kremin.
On July 16, subclause 1 of paragraph 7 of the Final and Transitional Provisions section of the law on language, which imposes fines, comes into force. Since then, the Commissioner will be able to fine officials of public authorities and local self-government, managers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations of all forms of ownership, other individuals who will violate the law. According to the results of the prepared protocol on administrative offense, a decision is possible to recover in the form of a warning or fine from UAH 3,400 to UAH 8,500, if the violation is committed for the first time, or from UAH 8,500 to UAH 11,900 - for repeated violation within a year.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, since July 16, all web sites must introduce Ukrainian-language versions.
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