Participants in discussion during the second sitting of the UAPP Legal Media Committee in Kyiv in March. Photo: Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers.

Ukrainian media trial lawyers meet to exchange strategies on how to defend the position of media in court cases concerning defamation and the protection of honor and personal dignity

The Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers (UAPP) convened the meeting of its Legal Media Committee - committee of the media lawyers representing leading Ukrainian publishers-members of the UAPP. The monthly sittings of the Legal Media Committee is supported by the International Media Support to facilitate communication, cooperation and consensus between the UAPP members on the legal issues important for further development of the Ukrainian print media.

The March meeting, which was the second of its kind, dealt with the defamation issues and court cases against print media on the protection of honor and personal dignity. Ukrainian leading media trial lawyers were invited to present their vision of the problem and their strategy of defending the position of media in the respective court proceedings. The representative of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and doctor in linguistics, Mr Viktor Britsyn, also participated in the meeting discussions refining the linguistic aspect of the issue.

Articles must comply with legal and ethical standards

Another focus was given to the prevention of suing media in defamation cases and Committee members agreed on the common approach to prevent such court cases against print media. There was concensus that this would demand improvement of internal communication and information flow as well as a need for establishing procedures for the internal expertise of the materials for publishing with respect to their compliance with legal and ethical standards.

Mr Oleksandr Diachenko, UAPP lawyer stated that:

- Effectiveness of the Legal Media Committee work largely depends on the active involvement of its members. We are now for the second time having an active and productive discussion about the "hot" issues for the print media field which is based on practical examples and fueled with the pro-active approach of the meeting participants.

Professional take on 'hot' legal issues

During the Committee meetings, lawyers of the largest publishing houses discuss "hot" legal problems of the media field and share their experience in defending rights and interests of the media and journalists. They also can make a recommendation to the UAPP board to adopt a joint position on a certain legal problem common for the UAPP members. Each meeting is thematic and usually external experts are invited to make presentations of the specific topics.

The first Committee meeting took place on January 29 and covered the legal regulation of advertising in media including language issues, author rights in advertising and Internet advertising. An external expert representing the State Department on Consumer Policy and Advertising, explained the requirements which had to be met by print media to stay in line with the Ukrainian legislation on advertising.

The next Media Legal Committee meeting will focus on author rights of journalists and representation of the Ukrainian print media on the Internet. 

Lawyers and media collaborate on media law reform

In a separate event on 25 February, lawyers also took part in a meeting organised jointly by the National Union of Journalists and the Ukrainian Association of Media Lawyers with support from IMS to discuss the proposed amendments to the national legislation regulating professional activities of journalists and their professional rights.

The round table discussions that gathered around 40 members of the regional offices of the national union of Journalists aimed to form joint position of the journalistic organizations with regard to the draft law "On the protection of professional activities of journalists" which is in the parliament now as well as to propose possible improvements to the draft.

Most notably, the round table participants developed a common understanding of the status of professional journalists and ways to confirm and protect this status. The concept of the unified national press card was adopted as the only possible way to confirm professional reporters' status and, as a result, to receive special rights and guarantees.

Raising the educational standard of journalists

It was also decided to form a working group consisting of representatives of professional journalism and of the university faculties of journalism in order to develop the Concept of Training and Re-training of Journalists. Several improvements were proposed to the above-mentioned draft law to raise educational standards for journalists.

It was agreed to monitor the current situation on the implementation and protection of the professional journalists' rights and to follow up with the development of the respective legislative initiatives if necessary.

Joining hands with other initiatives

Finally, participants settled to verify the compliance of the discussed draft with other important media draft laws now sent to the parliamentary readings, such as the draft law on access to public information.  

Positions expressed and decisions taken by the representatives of regional and local journalist organizations at the round table will be used by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine to advocate for the interests of professional journalists during the parliamentary readings of the draft law.

For more information, please contact Antonina Cherevko, IMS Programme Officer for Ukraine, at ac[snabela]i-m-s.dk or +380 50 410 27 68