In 2021, the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Language Commissioner registered and processed 3,574 appeals regarding violations of state language legislation.
The largest number of appeals came from the city of Kyiv (557), as well as Kharkiv (339), Odesa (157), Dnipropetrovsk (135), Zaporizhia (94), Donetsk (87), Kyiv (82) and Luhansk (80) regions.
That’s according to a Facebook post by the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language.
The lowest number of breaches was recorded in Chernivtsi (7), Rivne (6), Ivano-Frankivsk (5), and Ternopil (5) regions.
The vast majority of appeals were filed in the first quarter of 2021 (1,129) and the third (1,096), while in the second and fourth quarters came 670 and 679 appeals, respectively.
“Such dynamics is explained, first of all, by the fact that in these periods, certain articles of the Law of Ukraine ‘On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language’ came into force. The most relevant and widespread (1,044) were the appeals regarding the lacking Ukrainian version of online shopping websites and service rendering,” said the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Taras Kremin.
A total of 858 appeals concerned language violations in the service industry, including 245 in Kyiv, 88 in Kharkiv region, 44 in Dnipropetrovsk region, 37 in Odesa region, and 41 in – 37, Zaporizhia region.
The topic of language compliance in outdoor advertising remains quite relevant. A total of 393 appeals were received during the reporting period.
Throughout the past year, equal numbers of complaints were received as regards violations of language legislation by public authorities and local governments. In the first quarter, citizens reported 71 breaches, as well as 70 in the second, 60 in the third, and 61 in the fourth. In total, for the reporting period, citizens recorded 262 violations. The highest number of cases involving non-compliance with language legislation by officials was recorded in Kharkiv (43), Odesa (35), Dnipropetrovsk (25), Donetsk (22), Kherson (17), and Kyiv (16) regions.
On July 16, 2021, Article 24 of Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language” came into force, laying down a mandate for broadcasting films on television in the state language.
As a result, the number of complaints about violations of the language legislation in the field of television and radio broadcasting increased sharply in the third quarter (125) against the first quarter (21) the second (19), and the fourth (5).
A total of 171 appeals concerned film broadcast by major TV channels in a language other than the state one, as well as the lack of translation into the state language of speeches and interviews of various speakers.
In the field of educational services, citizens filed 157 complaints about violations of language legislation by staff at preschool, general secondary, and higher education facilities in the city of Kyiv (31), as well as Odesa (17) and Kharkiv regions (14).
Appropriate measures were taken and responses were sent to the applicants in respect of all appeals received by the Commissioner.
