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Audiovisual services in Ukraine

More than 100 participants for the first time have discussed the text of the draft law on audio visual services at the international conference “Legislation on audio-visual services: European standards and Ukrainian perspectives” held on 28 March in Kyiv. The participants included MPs, members of the National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council, state officials and representatives of civil society and TV industry and broadcasting organisations.

 “At the beginning, allow me to recall that the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly - in its Resolution 1466 (2005) - called on the authorities of Ukraine to ensure that the new version of the Law on Television and Radio Broadcasting is in line with Council of Europe standards and with the recommendations of its experts», Ambassador Vladimir Ristovski, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, said in his opening speech. “The Association Agreement with the EU indicates that Ukraine committed to align its media legislation with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive within two years of entering into force of the Agreement. It is also worth mentioning that the Adoption of the law in line with the Directive would open access to the Media sub-programme opportunities and funds to Ukrainian media professionals in context of the Creative Europe Agreement of the European Commission and the Government of Ukraine ratified in February 2016.”

 Victoria Suimar, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee of Freedom of Speech and Information Policy  stressed, “We have to remember that the key recipient of the new audio-visual legislation is Ukrainian society which deserves the quality services, adequate content which would enable people to better understand the informational word in which we live in”.

UKRIANE: Legislation on audiovisual services: European standards and Ukrainian perspectives

Council of Europe experts Ad van Loon (the Netherlands) and national consultant Andrii Pazuik gave a detailed overview of international standards as well as the commitments of Ukraine regarding reforms in media sector.

The Council of Europe experts stated that the draft law offers a good starting point for discussion in Parliament, but the text needs further fine-tuning to eliminate provisions that remain problematic from the perspective of European standards derived from Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and/or EU law and to provide further clarification of terms or provisions that are too vague or inconsistent.

Panel discussions were devoted to all chapters of the draft law on audio-visual services (AVS), in particular the issues of licensing and registration in the AVS, requirements on the content of audio-visual information and organisation of AVS provision, authorities of the regulator, violations of the legislation and responsibility in the sphere of AVS. Within the panel discussions the issues of deregulation, liberalization and as transparency of regulation in the sphere of AVS were raised. Participants also raised the issues of editorial charters and editorial councils proposing that the latter could be made more effective if the journalists are the majority of the councils and if the staff is represented proportionally. Participants were seriously concerned with the amount of violations in media content (hidden political advertising, paid for coverage during elections) stipulating that there are no sanctions and that the regulators should be given adequate powers in order to handle this issue.

The participants and experts paid special attention to the issue of independence and efficiency of the National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine. Peggy Valcke, Council of Europe expert (Belgium) presented relevant Council of Europe standards and the Report on the independence of National Regulatory Authorities of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), which is important in context of revision of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

The Project continues to follow developments of the Draft Law on audio-visual services.

The conference was organized by the Project “Freedom of Media in Ukraine” implemented within the Council of Europe and European Union Programmatic Cooperation Framework for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus (hereinafter – the Project); and in cooperation with the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine and State Committee on TV and Radio.

 Conference agenda

 Presentation: "European standards and Ukraine’s commitments to the European Union and the Council of Europe in regard to media reforms"

 Panel discussion 1: "Licensing and registration in the sphere of audio-visual services"

 Panel discussion 2: "Requirements regarding audiovisual media content and regarding the provision of audiovisual media services"

 Panel discussion 3: "National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine and its authority"

 Panel discussion 4: "Dealing with violations"

 Presentation: Ukraine's obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe in regard to audiovisual media services

Kyiv, Ukraine 31 March 2016
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