Rada approved law on media ownership transparency

The Ukrainian Parliament approved the Law No.1831 "On amendments to some Ukrainian Laws for securing transparency of mass media ownership, and implementation of state policy in sphere of TV and radio broadcasting". It was approved on September 3, as the Parliament website informs. The Institute of Mass Information's lawyer Roman Holovenko is one of the authors of the law. 

According to this Law, in particular, the structure of ownership of an entity that conducts media activities in the sphere of TV and radio broadcasting is deemed transparent if information published on its official website and submitted to the National Council for TV and Radio broadcasting, enables identification of people, who own direct or indirect considerable share in the entity, or who are able considerably influence administration or activities of the entity, including relations of control between all entities in the chain of ownership of corporate property rights in relation to this legal entity, and to identify the end beneficiary owner.

This information must be published on an official website of a mass media outlet, and an update on it must be submitted to the National Council on TV and Radio broadcasting every year.

In addition, the Parliament made some amendments to the Law - in particular, residents of Russia, as an aggressor country, are not allowed to be owners of mass media entities in Ukraine, as well as offshore zones entities from offshore zones defined by the Cabinet of Ministers.