Activity Details (ID# 7440)

Activity Synopsis

The immediate objective was to present and discuss the conclusions and recommendations made by Mr Jakubowicz in the aforementioned written review, having regard to the request that the Ministers’ Deputies had addressed to the Ukrainian authorities, at their 857th meeting on 22 October 2003, “to refrain from presenting to parliament, for adoption, the draft laws on the media which have been submitted for an expertise by the Council of Europe, before the results of this expertise can be discussed and taken into account.”

The ultimate objective was to ensure that the draft texts would comply with the relevant Council of Europe standards, in particular as regards the independence of broadcasters and of their regulator vis-à-vis public authorities and political forces.
 

Thanks to the assistance of the Council of Europe office in Kiev and the cooperation of the Committee for Freedom of Expression and Information of the Ukrainian Parliament, the meeting was well organised. A number of media covered the meeting.

On the substance, the Chairman of the Committee for Freedom of Expression and Information of the Ukrainian Parliament indicated that, out of the 4 draft texts that had been reviewed by Mr Jakubowicz, the 2 which had been prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, namely drafts n° 2 and 4 in Mr Jakubowicz’s review, had been rejected by Parliament. It is recalled that draft n° 4 had been considered by Mr Jakubowicz as a cause for “very serious concern” on the grounds that it would constitute a step back towards governmental control over the broadcasting sector in Ukraine.

On the other hand, the 2 drafts that had been prepared by members of Parliament (drafts n° 1 and 3 in Mr Jakubowicz’s review) had been approved by a majority of 280 votes during their first reading in Parliament. These drafts had subsequently been revised in order to take account of Mr Jakubowicz’s comments.

It would appear, in particular, that draft n° 3, which Mr Jakubowicz had considered as “a cause for serious concern”, had been revised and improved on questions such as the possibility to “rotate” the members of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

This being said, it was not possible to evaluate the exact nature and extent of these improvements during the meeting since no English version of the revised drafts was made available on that occasion. Therefore, it remains to be seen if the drafts, as they will emerge from the 2nd reading by Parliament, will indeed meet the Council of Europe standards. Once this 2nd reading will have taken place, most likely in January 2004, and if the drafts are finally adopted on this occasion, the Secretariat will order the translation of the adopted texts into English so as to analyse their content. The conclusions of this analysis will be subsequently submitted to the GR-EDS.

A related matter which may deserve closer consideration in this context is the Law on public morality which was recently adopted by the Ukrainian parliament but has not yet been promulgated by the President of Ukraine. According to some participants in the meeting, this new Law may seriously hinder freedom of expression and the operation of the media as it would, in particular, establish a new licensing system which may be contrary to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. As with the other texts, the Secretariat will order the translation of this law into English in order to evaluate its compatibility with the Council of Europe standards and will report on its evaluation to the GR-EDS.


 

Members of the Committee for Freedom of Expression and Information of the Ukrainian Parliament, representatives of the State Committee for Radio and Television and of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, representatives of National Television of Ukraine and of private broadcasters and cable operators

 

Mr Karol Jakubowicz, Adviser to the Chairman of the Broadcasting Council of Poland

 

Christophe Poirel, Head of Media Division, DG II