In a statement issued on November 27, 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine denounces the complete ban of "Rabochaya Gazeta" (Workers' Newspaper) by the Sixth Appeal Administrative Court.
A month ago, in an authoritarian decision, the Kiev District Court had ordered the ban of the newspaper.
The Communist Party's statement is the following:
"Today, November 27, 2019, the Sixth Appeal Administrative Court upheld the decision of the court of first instance to ban the “Workers Newspaper” – the only newspaper in opposition to the oligarch-Nazi regime.
“Workers Newspaper” is the oldest newspaper in Ukraine, hidhliting the situation of the working classes, actively opposing the “fascization” of public relations, against the glorification of Nazi criminals and their accomplices from the OUN-UPA, advocating for an end to the Civil War in the Donbass unleashed by official Kiev after the 2014 military coup and the seizure of power by the triumvirate of oligarchs, neo-Nazis and crime.
Despite the expectations of voters voting against the policies pursued by the previous Poroshenko regime in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2019, the political course of the “new” government has not changed. Therefore the oppositional “Workers Newspaper” carrying the word of truth to the workers, is also hated by new government like by its predecessors.
Today when the Office of the President and the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada prepare to pass a law that completely destroys freedom of speech and introduces total censorship of the media, the closure of the3 “Workers Newspaper” is to be considered as a trial ball on the path to adopting such an undemocratic law. And much here will depend on the reaction of the Ukrainian and international public to this oligarcho-Nazi lawlessness.
Therefore, we call on all progressive forces, communist and workers parties, using the opportunities of members of national parliaments, the European Left group in PACE, deputies of the European Parliament, using the opportunity and influence of their media, to defend the “Workers Newspaper”.
Communist Party of Ukraine
Central Committee
Department for the International Relations".
