Denationalization of printed press in ukraine: historical background

The topicality of the research is, first and foremost, caused by the active process of transition from industrial to information-oriented society, which can be observed throughout the world and which is impossible without independent mass media. Those countries with a longer history of democracy do not have mass media fully owned by the state, except for those that broadcast and print only statistical data, because the underlying principle of the European democracy is that the government is not entitled to carry on propaganda for its own people.  

Legislative attempts to settle the problem of municipal printed media reforming have almost 20-year-long history. The process of discussing the issues of denationalization started as far back as in the late 1990s, more specifically in 1999. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a regulation ‘On activity of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and other governing institutions concerning assurance of freedom of speech, satisfaction of informational needs of the society and development of informational sphere in Ukraine’, which acknowledged the ‘need to force mass media denationalization concept development’.  

During the period of 2003-2006 National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council was discussing and ratifying the draft Law of Ukraine ‘On denationalization of mass media’, though it has not been passed. Key decisions concerning printed media denationalization were passed in 2006. Thus, on April 5, 2006, National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council discussed and ratified the draft Law of Ukraine ‘On denationalization of mass media’, developed by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.  On June 16, 2006, with support from International Renaissance Foundation public hearings of the draft Law of Ukraine ‘On reforming state and municipal printed media’ took place.

Two draft laws concerning denationalization were registered in the Parliament of Ukraine in 2010, that is № 6468 ‘On reform of state and municipal press’ in summer (brought in by people’s deputy Stepan Kurpil) and № 7313 ‘On reform of state and municipal printed media’ in autumn (introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine). On November 29, 2006 a hearing on ‘Reforming state and municipal printed mass media’ took place in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee for the freedom of speech and information. Drafts of two documents, developed by the Ministry of Justice and National Union of Journalists, were introduced at the hearing.

On June 17, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee for the freedom of speech and informational policy promoted the draft law № 1123 ‘On reforming state and municipal printed media’, registered on December 1, 2014 by the people’s deputies Mykola Tomenko and Oleksandr Abdullin, which was revised and finally passed by the Verkhovna  Rada of Ukraine on December 24, 2015. The Law of Ukraine ‘On reforming state and municipal printed media’ went into effect on January 1, 2016.