Activity Details (ID# 5240)

Activity Synopsis

The objectives of the conference were the following:

- to present to the participants the general principles developed by the European Court of Human Rights concerning Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- to have an exchange of views on the regulation of the press and electronic media in a democratic society
- to discuss the role and value of self regulation by the media as opposed to State regulation

 

The seminar was very well organised. Various documents concerning freedom of expression and information translated into Ukrainian were distributed to the participants.

The participants stressed that this kind of activity was very important and that the topics of the seminar were very interesting and appropriate. The local and Council of Europe experts’ presentations provoked very lively discussions.

During the discussion on the regulation of the press, it was interesting to hear the different points of view: some participants said that in Ukraine the legislation concerning the printed media is very liberal : “everyone who is not illiterate can start their own newspaper” . The others agreed, but said that the printed media is often controlled by local authorities.

During the discussion on the regulation of the electronic media, the participants were very interested to hear how the electronic media is regulated in Hungary (one of the Council of Europe experts was Hungarian).

 

In general, the seminar could be considered a success. The general conclusion was that while all participants followed the reports of the Council of Europe concerning Ukraine, some of them did not understand the critical aspect of these reports and thought that the Council of Europe “should pay more attention to cultural and political differences between Ukraine and other western countries”. The others thought that the situation in Ukraine concerning the electronic and printed media was very difficult and not in line with European standards.


 

Representatives of the State Committee on Television and Radio Broadcasting from Kyiv and regions, representatives of the Union of Journalists, editors, broadcasters

 

Mr Ornulf ROHNEBAEK, Legal Adviser, Royal Ministry of Justice and the Police (Norway)
Mr Ronan BRADY, Freelance Journalist (Ireland)
Mr György OCSKO, Head of Department,
National Radio and Television Commission (Hungary)
 

Mr Olexander Pavlichenko, Director of
the Information Office of the Council of Europe, Co-ordinator of the Action Plan for the media in Ukraine
Ms Lejla Dervisagic, Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights