KIEV, July 21. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremen called on the regulator to slap sanctions on the country’s six TV channels for broadcasting movies in Russian, in violation of new provisions of the state language law.

"According to the monitoring results, violations of the law on the state language were recorded. Some films and series were broadcast in Russian by the Inter, Ukraine, ICTV, Mega, NTN and K1 TV channels, so the relevant acts were drawn up," Kremen wrote on his Facebook page.

The commissioner noted that he "sent a letter to Ukraine’s National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting asking to apply the sanctions under the legislation to the above mentioned organizations." He also urged the Ukrainian TV channels to comply with the provisions of the law in terms of broadcasting films and TV series in the state language.

Furthermore, Kremen mentioned that some six violations were recorded on the Inter TV channel, including the broadcast of the Guest from the Future as well as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson feature films in Russian. According to Kremen, five violations were recorded on the Ukraine TV channel, two violations were detected on the Mega and ICTV channels, while the K1 and NTN channels broke the law once.

Ukraine's state language policy

The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) passed a law on the Ukrainian language on April 25, 2019, while on May 15, the document was signed by former President Pyotr Poroshenko.

In the winter of 2019, the Venice Commission recommended that the Ukrainian authorities review the law on the state language. The experts believe that Kiev should adopt a law on national minorities, otherwise there are grounds for discrimination. Ukraine was also asked to look into the possibility of lifting the sanctions for violating the state language law’s norms.

According to Ukrainian law, all cultural events are to be held only in the state language, while some 90% of the TV channels’ content has to be aired in Ukrainian. This year, the new provision of the law on increasing the usage of the Ukrainian language in the service sector came into force.

Meanwhile, since July 16, Ukraine has introduced the norms concerning the broader usage of the Ukrainian language in the film industry, the mandatory holding of events in the state language as well as language proficiency tests.