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The adoption of the law on fighting the spread of child pornography threatens the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens The adoption of the law on fighting the spread of child pornography threatens the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens, lawyers polled by Interfax-Ukraine have said.

As reported, 404 MPs supported the law on fighting the spread of child pornography as part of the amendments to the law on telecommunications. The amendments oblige the providers of telecommunications networks to keep information about all connections of their clients to the resources of an indicated provider and to inform the law enforcement agencies if a client violates legislation, including by distributing products of a pornographic character involving children. Internet consumers are also obliged to inform law enforcement agencies if they find any illegal content on the Internet.

"According to Article 39 of the draft bill, the duty of the providers of telecommunication networks "to undertake measures to limit access of their clients to resources" contradicts Article 5 of the law on information, under which the main principles of information relations are, in particular, "guaranteeing the right to information, transparency, availability and the free of exchange of information," Mykhailo Spasov, a lawyer of Volkov Koziakov and Partners law firm said.

He forecasts that the adoption of these amendments to the law on telecommunications will lead to a considerable number of court appeals by citizens on the basis of Article 55 of the Constitution of Ukraine on the right to a court defense.

As reported, representatives of the internet market expressed the general disapproval of the adopted draft law. In particular, Tetiana Popova, chairperson of the Ukrainian Internet Association, said the association hoped to achieve the cancellation of the amendments to the law on telecommunications or to obtain a presidential veto in case of failure to cancel the law.