KYIV. UkraineGate . 2. September. 2022 | Society.
This week, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the first reading supported draft law No. 2693-d “On Media”, the purpose of which is to introduce regulation of online media, bloggers and various web platforms.
Quote
“In terms of industry, we are talking about the fact that there should not be a television regulator for print media, because they are already regulated. And therefore, this is already a huge stress for the entire industry. And today, 95% of print media editors do not support the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council regulating the press. Despite the fact that this market has lost the fight to electronic mass media, there are still hundreds of newspapers at the regional level that have a real audience, and they do not deserve these problems,” Tomilenko believes.
Details
The head of the NSJU names article 99, which lists measures to respond to violations of legislation in the media sphere, as the main clause of Law No. 2693-d, which confuses journalists. In particular, among the measures that the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting has the right to take in the event of a violation of the law is the cancellation of a license by a court decision in the manner specified by Article 116 of this law. In addition, it is allowed to impose fines and prescriptions, which are also applied by decision of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting.
“The approach proposed by the draft law: when there are various violations of the speech and advertising legislation, the National Council can make prescriptions, issue fines and close print and online media without a trial. For online and print media, this will be the “principle of traffic police”. That is, when a fine is issued, and only then the journalist has to go to court if he does not agree. However, in Ukrainian realities, this is not fair. That is, in Ukrainian realities, officials have to prove the guilt of journalists, go to court, and seek that verdict there. Before being punished, journalists should have the right to protection,” Tomilenko explains.
At the same time, the head of the National Union of Journalists noted that the National Union of Journalists supports Ukraine’s fulfillment of obligations regarding the reform of media legislation, which the country took upon receiving the status of a candidate for the European Union.
However, journalists and media professionals have repeatedly suggested to the authorities, government officials, authors of this law “to focus on the rapid implementation of European approaches, which, in fact, refer to a specific directive of the European Union on audiovisual services, and not to construct a global media code, which is supposed to solve various problems that have been accumulating in Ukraine for years,” noted Tomilenko.
“Therefore, in the form in which this draft law is now, it is quite conflicting. A politically independent media regulator is a key requirement of European legislation. That is, he must have public trust and the trust of the professional journalistic environment. Media reform should be carried out only through a broad dialogue with real journalists and real media. But the draft law should be developed in dialogue with journalists. We see that in the Ukrainian draft law on the media, the provisions of the directive, which are mandatory for joining the EU, make up only 10% of our law,” stated the head of the NSJU.
Addition
The Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanyshina informed that the new version of the bill “On Media” will be sent to the European Commission for assessment.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, previously stated that the law on media will be one of the most controversial European integration initiatives that the Ukrainian parliament plans to adopt.
Source : Ukrgate
