May 17, the Verkhovna Rada passed the Law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” (Definition of Broadcasts Produced in Europe)”. The adoption of the draft law №2766 in the second reading and as a whole was voted for by 229 MPs.
According to it, the Russian audiovisual products will be withdrawn from the quota for European products on radio and TV (except for satellite broadcasting).
The changes affected part 4 of Article 28 of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”. Within the interval of 07.00 and 23.00 the licensees (except for the satellite ones) must comply with the following ratios of the Ukrainian and foreign broadcasts:
the broadcasts produced in Europe, as well as the United States and Canada should be at least 70% of the total volume of weekly broadcasting, including broadcasts of Ukrainian production to make not less than 50% of the total volume of weekly broadcasting;
as for the radio broadcasts, the music compositions of Ukrainian authors and performers should not be less than 50 percent of the total volume of weekly broadcasting.
A broadcast of European production is considered the one made by one or more legal entities-residents of the states that ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. These also include broadcasts made by order of legal entities-residents of the states that ratified the Convention, provided that immediate producers of such broadcasts were persons-residents of such states. If a broadcast was made by order or involving one or more legal entities-residents of the states recognized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as aggressor countries and/or occupier countries, so such a broadcast can not be regarded as the one of European or Ukrainian production.
We shall recall that the draft law №2766 was registered on April 30 last year. On November 24, 2015, as reported by Mediasat, the draft law was backed in the first reading.
