DOI: 10.20535/2307-5244.49.2019.189575
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
On April 17, 2014, the Democratic majority, formed in Parliament after the
escape of former President Viktor Yanukovych, voted for the new Law on Public
Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine. It launched one of the most
critical media reforms, capable of creating a truly independent, powerful, and
influential media. Subsequently, the Agreement of the Parliamentary Member
Coalition “European Ukraine,” convened by the Parliament members after the
2014 parliamentary elections, listed several steps to reform the media sector as
priorities of social and humanitarian reform. Reform prohibiting printed media
by state bodies and local authorities was necessary.
The Law of Ukraine «On Reforming State and Local Printed Media» was
passed at the end of 2015. According to this law, the state authorities and local
self-governing bodies were obliged to become partial founders of the print media
or to transfer the print media, established by the central executive bodies, into
the status of an official print media.
It took three years to reform all state periodicals. It took place in two stages:
the first — during 2016, the second — during 2017–2018. The first phase was to
become «pilot,» last for one year and cover publications that voluntarily agreed
to the change. The purpose of this phase was also to identify potential obstacles
to reform and elaborate relevant legislative mechanisms in response.
In the second, the voluntary-told phase, the rest of the periodicals had join
the reform. Whether to volunteer for reform in the first phase or to wait for the
second phase had to be decided by the end of March 2016.
On December 31, 2018, one of the most extensive media reforms in Ukraine —
the Printed State and Local Media — ended. Ukraine has fulfilled its commitment
to the Council of Europe and the Ukrainian society to limit the influence of state
and local authorities on the press and to create an equal ground for printed media
of different ownership.
Keywords: Ukraine, media, state and local media, media reform, media experts,
NGO.
