Law increasing use of Ukrainian and official EU languages on Ukrainian television and radio takes effect
08 November 2016, 18:28
The Law amends the Laws of Ukraine "On National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council," "On Television and Radio Broadcasting," as well as the Law of Ukraine "On Principles of State Language Policy" touching quotation of songs in Ukrainian language and official languages of the European Union inside of Ukraine.
On this occasion, the Committee on Free Speech and Information Policy initiated a roundtable meeting dedicated to enactment of the legislative acts, discussion and adoption of which reverberated through the society.
The participants in the roundtable meeting were members of the Ukrainian Parliament, representatives of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, Ministry of Culture, non-government and professional audio-visual media organizations. The host of the event was Chairperson of the Committee on Free Speech and Information Policy Viktoriya Siumar.
The participants in the meeting discussed sociopolitical, economic and ethical aspects of contemporary state of musical culture, functioning of Ukrainian language and languages of national minorities, copyright in the field of TV and radio broadcasting, etc.
According to the Law, TV and radio broadcasting organizations have to ensure running of at least 35% of Ukrainian songs within a day, and at least 35% of the total number of songs run between 7:00 and 14:00 and between 15:00 and 22:00. If a radio station broadcasts 60% of songs in official EU languages within the said periods of time, the share of Ukrainian songs can be lowered to 25%.
According to results of the meeting, the Committee on Free Speech and Information Policy decided to periodically analyze the implementation of the law.