KYIV, Nov 9 – Former President Petro Poroshenko, in a complex merger transaction transferred ownership of his television assets to journalists, days after a legislation has come into force that may bar his from running for office.

Poroshenko, who is expected to run for re-election in 2024, shielded his television assets, by merging 100% of The Channel 5 and Pryamiy television channels into media holding Vilni Media, or Free Media, which is owned by journalists.

The move is aimed at reducing affiliation that would have otherwise qualified Poroshenko as an ‘oligarch,’ a wealthy businessman with major political connections and media assets capable of influencing governmental policies.

The legislation was pushed for by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with some commentators suggesting the law may be aimed against Poroshenko to eliminate his presidential bid in 2024.

"Last Friday we created a new media holding, which will be called Vilni Media. The owners of the holding are media professionals, journalists, public figures and opposition deputies who were journalists. Thus, labor collectives are the largest shareholder. In accordance with the requirements of anti-corruption legislation, the MPs immediately transferred their shares to the management of the television channels," presenter Matviy Hanopolsky said on the air of the television channel.

In Ukraine, television is usually a loss-making business with endless talk shows used for promoting politicians and political parties as a means of winning election, forming the government and eventually recouping losses through corruption.

This means Channel 5 and Pryamiy will probably still require extensive financing that journalists are not likely to provide, which means that Poroshenko will have to come up with a creative way of providing funding to ensure favorable coverage.

Poroshenko, commenting on the creation of the holding, said he transferred the shares of TV channels to journalists in order to protect freedom of speech.

"Recently, due to the attack on freedom of speech, which is the real target of the law on oligarchs, I was forced to make a decision to sell shares of both my channels recently to journalists: current and former, who worked for Pryamiy and, of course, for Channel 5, which fought with censorship back in the times of the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. Some of these journalists are MPs. By law, they transferred their packages to the management of TV channels, which united in a holding with the symbolic name 'Vilni media,'" Poroshenko said.

Poroshenko said the purpose of the law on de-oligarchizing is, first of all, to take control of the media, and recalled that pressure on the Pryamiy television channel had been exerted earlier as well.

"Ukraine is Europe. And free media is an important institution in every democratic state. We will not let the Revolution of Dignity's gains be destroyed. We will not allow a dictatorship to be built in Ukraine similar to the regime of Putin or Lukashenko," he said. (tl/ez)