Kyiv Post on 11 June 2010. Journalists see rising interference from media owners. Photo: Kyiv Post

Who owns the media in Ukraine? The lack of transparency in media ownership structures in Ukraine is a hot issue in the Ukrainian media market

By Antonina Cherevko, IMS

Despite some improvement during the last couple of years of civil campaigning and advocacy, the lack of transparency in  media ownership is still a “hot" issue in the Ukrainian media market as well as in many other developing and even established democracies.

More than twenty Ukrainian and international experts – lawyers, journalists, politicians, public officials and civil activists – met in Kyiv in June 2010 to discuss the shortfalls of the Ukrainian media’s ownership transparency legislation.  The roundtable titled  “Regulatory Improvement for the Transparency of Media Ownership” was organised by the Media Law Institute and Article 19 with support from International Media Support (IMS).

Complicated ownership structures

The ownership structures of Ukraine’s biggest media are extremely complicated and mostly “rooted” in the so-called “off-shore zones”. This means that it is not possible legally to prove that a certain politician, businessman or state official has a significant share in, for example, one of the leading TV channels.

Transparency seen as “dangerous”

The problem is complicated further by the fact that overall standards of transparency and openness are not widely recognised by Ukrainian business companies and often considered to be “dangerous” for the protection of property rights and commercial success.

In the course of the active discussions participants were divided into two opposing camps: those who support the idea of absolute transparency of ownership in the media market and those who think that the present system enables effective protection of private ownership, something which is seen as an important factor in the country’s unstable economic environment.

Ukrainian state stakeholders were represented by the deputy head of the National Council on TV and Radio Larysa Mudrak who explained on the Council’s policies to ensure transparency of media ownership. Andriy Shevchenko, first deputy head of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information, renowned for his active position and contribution to the promotion of media freedom in Ukraine, also participated in the round table proceedings along with representatives of Article 19 and IMS.

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