In December of 2007, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine announced that
starting in 2008 all foreign-language movies shown in the country will have to
be translated into Ukrainian via dubbing, subtitles, or synchronous translation.1
There would be nothing attention-worthy about this announcement if
the ‘foreign language’ category didn’t also include Russsian, the native
language of 30% of the population of Ukraine (www.ukrcensus.gov.ua), and
one used and understood by the majority of the remaining 70%. The new law
thus was not driven by linguistic needs, as it would be in the case of movies in
French, Danish or Hindi. Nor was it driven by economic needs the demand
for Russian-language books and media continues to be high in Ukraine, and
the measure may actually be detrimental to the already struggling film
industry. In fact, it is the popularity of the Russian-language media
inconsistent with Ukraine’s nationalizing agenda and political aspirations
and alliances that drives the new law whose purpose is to ensure that
Ukrainian citizens live in a Ukrainian-language environment.
The announcement sparked a stormy debate in the media. Russian media
have decried the law as yet another illiberal step taken by the Ukrainian
government to deprive consumers of free choice and to impinge on the rights
of Russian speakers.2 President Yushchenko contradicted this accusation
stating that Ukrainian language policy conforms to all liberal European
standards and that Russian is the language of another country that would
not allow Ukrainians to identify themselves as Ukrainian