Construction of dispositions of articles that provide criminal legal protection of the journalist

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the norms of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine, which regulate public relations in the sphere of protection of the legal activity of journalists, in the part that concerns the construction of these criminal law norms.
The range of criminal offenses that provide criminal legal protection of the legal activity of journalists has been defined. A study of the provisions defining the concept of a journalist in general was carried out, and a list of features that stand out in various specialized legislative acts was clarified and summarized into a single criminal-legal understanding of the concept of a journalist as a victim in a certain category of criminal offenses.
A study of draft laws proposing amendments and additions to the provisions of the current criminal law legislation was conducted. Inconsistencies between the concepts used in the draft law and the current legislation have been identified. It was established that the proposed changes to the current Criminal Code of Ukraine are not always sufficiently justified and logical; somewhere they create problems with the same understanding of the same concept, which is used in different criminal law norms. The problem with the application of the concept of «journalist», which is proposed to be significantly expanded, is also considered, so its previous meaning and the practical possibility of its application are lost. It has been studied that the term «influence in any form» implies absolutely all possible variants of influence with the use of any tools or means, and therefore does not require any addition or clarification.
It has been found that in some draft laws it is proposed to use legal constructions, the effectiveness of which has not been proven in criminal law, both in theory and in practice, and administrative prejudice is separately attributed to such constructions.
A general analysis of criminal legal norms providing criminal legal protection of journalists was conducted, and certain similarities between them and other related criminal legal norms were determined.