any decision of the relevant committee and was passed in the first and the second reading in one voting by 386 deputies. The law was approved by 140 MPs of the Party of Regions, 89 MPs of Batkivshchyna, 40 MPs of UDAR, 32 of the Communist Party, and 50 independent lawmakers. According to Radio Free Europe, however, the measure was not signed by the then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was subsequently removed from office. Fundamental Freedoms and basic elements of constitutional system Article 1 of the Constitution defines Ukraine a sovereign, independent, social (welfare) state. According to Article 5 of the Constitution, the bearer of sovereignty and the single source of power in Ukraine are the people. The people exercise their power directly and through state and local authorities. Nobody can usurp power in Ukraine. The Article 15 of the Constitution established that public life in Ukraine is based on principles of political, economical, and ideological diversity. No ideology could be recognized by the state as mandatory. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law, although religious organizations are required to register with local authorities and with the central government. The Article 35 of the Constitution defines that no religion could be recognized by the state as mandatory, while church and religious organizations in Ukraine are separated from the state. Minority rights are respected in accordance with a 1991 law guaranteeing ethnic minorities the right to schools, educational buildings, and cultural facilities and the use of national languages in conducting personal business. According to the Ukrainian constitution, Ukrainian is the only official state language. However, in Crimea and some parts of eastern Ukraine—areas with substantial ethnic Russian minorities—the use of Russian is widespread in official business. Freedom of speech and press are guaranteed by law, but authorities sometimes interfere with the news media through different forms of pressure (see Freedom of the press in Ukraine). In particular, the failure of the government to conduct a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation into the 2000 disappearance and murder of independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze has had a negative effect on Ukraine's international image. Over half of Ukrainians polled by the Razumkov Center in early October 2010 (56.6%) believed political censorship existed in Ukraine. Over half of Ukrainians feel political censorship, Kyiv Post (October 9, 2010) Official labor unions have been grouped under the Federation of Labor Unions. A number of independent unions, which emerged in