Brussels, 17/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 July, the European Commission called on Ukraine to conduct “with great care” tax inspections in the media during pre-electoral periods, following a tax inspection last week within the Ukrainian television channel TVi and the launch of an investigation against its director by the taxation police. “While we cannot comment on the merits of criminal investigations, we consider that such tax inspections need to be pursued with great care, in particular in an electoral period”, the Commission stressed.
The Commission underlined the Ukrainian parliament's recommendation of February 2012 to government bodies, the State tax service and Ukraine's National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council not to inspect media outlets in the pre-election period, and also the decision not to include the media into the schedule of tax inspections in the second quarter of the year 2012, extended to the third quarter by another decision taken in June.
“In our political dialogue with Ukraine we pay particular attention to aspects related to free media and media pluralism”, the Commission said. (CG/transl.jl)