June 11, Kyiv hosted an international conference “Establishing Effective Mechanism for Transparency of Media Ownership in Ukraine” organized by the Committee of Verkhovna Rada on the Freedom of Speech and Information Policy and the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine with support of the joint program of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Strengthening Information Society in Ukraine”.
Members of the meeting discussed the draft Law No. 1831 “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine on ensuring transparency of media ownership, as well as implementation of state policy principles in the field of television and radio broadcasting”.
During his speech, the Minister Yurii Stets said: “I have consistently supported the initiatives aimed to provide the customer with information about the owners of media. I believe that ensuring transparency of ownership is an effective measure to prevent manipulation of public opinion, both for the public and for the media owners themselves”.
The EU Ambassador and Chairman of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski expressed his opinion on the issue as follows: “According to the monitoring of media coverage of previous elections held with support of the joint program of the Council of Europe and the EU, channel owners often dictate the editorial policy of TV channels and run information wars on television during the election period instead of bringing objective reliable information to voters”.
As a result of discussions, leading experts in the field of media and mass media came to the conclusion that Ukraine requires effective mechanism to disclose ultimate owners and implement deconcentration of media. Conference experts like Matyas Mekhov (Austria), Lasha Tugushi and Kakha Kurashvilli (Georgia) presented experience of their countries and formulated practical recommendations for Ukraine.
