May has been a turbulent month for the Ukrainian media environment. After the news of “temnyky” returning to Ukrinform and Suspilne leaving the United Marathon, many commentators started questioning whether Ukraine is returning to the times of censoring independent media. Some dangerous legislative initiatives restricting the right to access information reappeared out of nowhere. However, some progress in implementing the Law on Media was nonetheless achieved. The most notable events happening in this period were:
- the finalisation and adoption of the CoE AI Convention text;
- limited reopening of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for journalists;
- the adoption in the first reading of the law, which restricts access to numerous types of court decisions and has the potential to limit freedom of expression rights for civil society and researchers;
- beginning of the print media co-regulatory body’s working group activities.
This series of digests provides an overview of the proposed and adopted legislation in the spheres of freedom of expression, media regulation, privacy and data protection, Internet regulation in general, and the activities of the National Broadcasting Council in the area of Media Law implementation.
As usual, the digest contains references to the documents discussed in the previous issues of the digest and provides a follow-up to the acts and events described therein.
You can access the May 2024 digest here: Digest #11 – May 2024.