KIEV, April 5 – President Petro Poroshenko has come under pressure from human rights organizations to amend recently approved legislation that may be used to punish investigative journalists exposing corruption in the government.

The legislation requires activists and journalists reporting on government corruption to file public declarations of their personal assets. The new measure is vague and could be used to deter or punish those exposing corruption.

“This new requirement is a slap in the face of Ukraine’s anti-corruption activists and its international partners who have been calling for a more transparent government,” Tanya Cooper, Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.

“The requirement conflates state officials, who have a responsibility to divulge their assets because they enjoy certain privileges of office and their work is funded by tax payers, with private citizens who report on issues of public interest.”

Poroshenko signed the legislation on March 27 after it was approved by Parliament on March 23. Now, international donors and human rights groups want Poroshenko to cancel the measure, which is an unjustified interference with freedom of expression and other rights protected by Ukraine’s human rights obligations.

Following the Maidan mass protests in 2013-2014, Ukraine’s political leadership pledged ambitious anti-corruption reforms to create a more transparent government.

One of the key reforms has required Ukraine’s state officials to publicly declare their assets annually through an online filing system.

Anti-corruption legislative reforms were among the conditions the Ukrainian government agreed to fulfill to meet requirements for visa-free travel by Ukrainians to the European Union.

Several of Ukraine’s international partners immediately condemned the new legislation. The Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said on Twitter: “E-declarations should target corruption in public administration – not hamper work of civil society.”

Poroshenko promised to facilitate the creation of a working group to amend the signed legislation to exclude the new measure against activists. But creating a working group could take time, and, meanwhile, the new amendment could have an immediate chilling effect on activists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said.

“No one is fooled by the true purpose of this amendment,” Cooper said. “President Poroshenko should urge parliament to immediately annul it. Such measures have no place in a reform-minded government.” (nr/ez)