Romaniuk: Civil society’s involvement in Civil Code discussion does not mean they agree with the result

The results of consultations on the new draft Civil Code must be reflected in concrete changes, and media organisations’ involvement in the discussion should not be interpreted as support for the document, Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, stressed at the BAM! (“Business, Activism, Media”) conference.

She joined the discussion “Being Heard: How Civil Society Unites in the Face of Shared Threats, the Civil Code Case”.

Romaniuk said that only two possible changes had been announced at the meeting between the draft bill’s authors and media NGOs: narrowing down the right of response to public figures, and referring the right to obscurity clauses to the law on personal data protection. The rest of the media community’s proposals, she said, are not being taken into account at the moment.

The IMI director said that a table of proposals by media organisations, the verdicts on each one, and the reasons behind them should be published. She also stressed that officials needed to begin systemic cooperation with civil society and media organisations, for example by creating a task force to come to agreement on the contentious clauses of the draft bill and to ensure an expert assessment of the revised text. According to her, there has been no movement towards creating such a task force.

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Romaniuk stressed that the right of response must not become a way to force news outlets to publish third-party material or to interfere in editorial independence.

Speaking about European standards, the IMI director emphasised that the modernisation of civil law must ensure the protection of privacy as well as freedom of expression. The wider limits of acceptable criticism of public figures and guarantees of public oversight must be consistently reflected in the relevant provisions of the code.

In their legal opinion, Council of Europe experts acknowledged the positive innovations in the draft bill while pointing out that the provisions concerning freedom of expression and the work of the media should be substantially revised.

The recommendations included:

• a differentiated approach to public figures;
• narrowing down the right of response;
• safeguards against legal pressure on journalists.

Romaniuk said that borrowing European right protection mechanisms must be accompanied by enshrining guarantees that they would not be exploited to withhold information of public importance.

Civil society organisations and media outlets called on the Verkhovna Rada not to adopt the new draft Civil Code No. 15150 in second reading or as a whole. In their view, the proposed changes may create risks for freedom of expression, human rights, and the protection of property, and a complete replacement of the Code may lead to years of legal uncertainty and court practice contradictions.