Activity Details (ID# 5229)

Activity Synopsis

The objective of the Round-Table was to present once again the conclusions and recommendations made in the context of the above written review in order to amend the Ukrainian Laws on broadcasting and align them with the Council of Europe standards, in particular on the independence of public radio and television and of the regulatory authority for the private electronic, as well as on the free reception and retransmission of programme services across frontiers.

A related objective was to discuss initiatives to be taken by the Parliament of Ukraine in order to revise the existing laws on broadcasting and align them with the above recommendations, as well as to prepare the ratification by Ukraine of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television.
 

The meeting was well organised, thanks to the assistance of the Parliament of Ukraine and of the Information and Documentation Centre of the Council of Europe in Kyiv. Copies in Ukrainian of the written review conducted in 2001, as well as of the relevant Council of Europe instruments, were distributed to the participants in the Round-Table.

The fact that representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe were present was instrumental for securing the presence of a large number of participants, and in particular the members of the Parliament of Ukraine, who were the primary target group of the Round-Table.

The discussion was very lively and open. All participants were able to express their views about the Ukrainian laws on broadcasting, their implementation and their perceived deficiencies, notably as concerns the lack of independence of the National Television and the National Radio of Ukraine or restrictions to the retransmission of foreign programmes in Ukraine. Some participants also raised other problems, for example concerning recent criminal investigations against five Ukrainian newspapers on the basis of Article 344 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on the grounds that they would have interfered with the work of the President of the Republic by criticising him.

The Round-Table was well covered by the media and the representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as the experts of the Organisation, were asked to give a number of interviews.

On the substantive question of the alignment of the Ukrainian laws on broadcasting with the Council of Europe standards, the experts were able to reiterate the recommendations made in the written review from 2001, in order in particular to distance public radio and television and the National Council for Radio and Television from public authorities and thereby better secure their independence. It remains to be seen whether the Parliament of Ukraine will now take concrete steps to revise the laws and align them with the Council of Europe standards.
 

No declaration or conclusions were adopted at the end of the Round-Table. Close attention should be paid to the question of whether the Ukrainian Parliament will give any concrete follow-up to the Round-Table and will embark on the revision of the laws on broadcasting, and when. 

Members of the Parliament of Ukraine and representatives of the Monitoring Committee and the Media Sub-Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, representatives of public and private media in Ukraine, officials from Ukrainian government or other departments responsible for media policy and media regulation in Ukraine (State Committee for Radio and TV Broadcasting, National Council for Radio and Television, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), representatives of international institutions (European Commission, OSCE) and non-governmental organisations monitoring the state of media freedoms in Ukraine, representatives of foreign Embassies in Ukraine. 

Mr Karol Jakubowicz (Poland), Vice-Chairman of the Steering Committee on the Mass Media of the Council of Europe, and Mrs Irina Boulin-Ghica (France), Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television 

Christophe Poirel, Head of Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights