Rationale

The Beneficiary Administration is the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting, the independent media regulator in Ukraine founded on December 21, 1993, through the adoption of the Law of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting.

In December 2022 Ukraine updated its legal framework on the audiovisual media sector, and approved the new Law on media, with the aim to harmonize the Ukrainian legislation with EU legislation in the field of audiovisual media services. The adoption of the law represents the fulfilment by Ukraine of Ukraine’s obligation under the Audiovisual Policy Section of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement: one out of the seven requirements of the European Commission for confirmation of Ukraine’s EU candidacy. This Law was based on the requirements of the reviewed EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services, as well as the standards of the Council of Europe in the media area.

Notwithstanding Ukraine’s significant progress towards harmonization of the Ukrainian legal framework to the European Acquis Communautaire, certain differences remain between the EU and Ukraine frameworks. The following points, among others, can be highlighted as missing links to be addressed by the Project:

– The National Council has under-budgeting and understaffing issues, and it faces difficulties in the implementation of the Law, partly due to the lack of experience of its officials, mainly in these fields: registration and monitoring of new media services; preparation of strategic documents; co-regulation; media literacy activities. In addition, while the Law on media of 2022 extends its scope also to the Video on Demand and Video Sharing Platform services, there is little mention about them in the tasks and responsibilities assigned to the National Council.

– While Ukraine has already transposed the AVMS Directive, it has still not done so with regards to the DSA, DMA, Regulation on Political ads and European media Freedom Act recently introduced in the EU. The peculiarity of these Regulations is that, for the first time, they regulate the providers of digital intermediary services. These regulations may prove to be extremely useful for a Country like Ukraine, where the disinformation campaigns and strategies, adopted by neighboring Countries as a result of the armed conflict, pose a serious threat for the democratic values and for the formation of the public opinion.

The overall objective of is to increase the efficiency, transparency and consistency of the media policy in Ukraine on the basis of a closer alignment with the EU media framework and to strengthen the independence of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting through enhancing legal, regulatory and administrative capacity to take appropriate regulatory measures as required by the legal framework of Ukraine and the EU