One year of Independent Media Council

The Independent Media Council (IMC) celebrated its first anniversary on Dec.15.

Centre for democracy and rule of law reports that during its first year, the Independent Media Council became a leading expert institution to provide recommendations to the The National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine (Natsrada) and media society.

For instance, Natsrada sent the majority of requests to the Council during this year. Moreover, the Media Council's implications, for 3 cases, formed the basis for the regulator's decision on imposing sanctions on broadcasters.

The core of the Independent Media Council is a constant self-regulated monitoring of situations in media space and operational regulation of all conflicting situations. During the first year, its experts considered 22 appeals. As a result, there are 11 conclusions and an ongoing expertise on 4 more cases.

The Independent Media Council provides its recommendations to the public bodies in order to improve their regulatory approaches in the area of media policy. The institution issued recommendations for regulatory authority to regulate its audiovisual content. Experts continue to prepare recommendations on advertising and sponsorship of alcohol.

During its first year of work the Media Council covered the issues of discrimination and dissemination of hate speech, and serious breaches of relevant professional and ethical standards in Media.

The Council held a series of public debates on important media issues and launched a series of regional round tables devoted to the state of local journalism - the first one already took place in Lviv.
An independent media council plans to continue its activities in future - "with a focus on forming media environment which provides qualified, balanced and authentic information to society."

Olena Holub, the head of IMI monitoring department and Roman Holovenko, the IMI legal project manager are members of the Independent Media Council.