Rada allows National TV Council to issue permits for TV, radio broadcasting in ATO zone
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted as a whole a law on amending certain laws on permits for broadcasting in the zone of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) and the border areas of Ukraine.
According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, 241 MPs voted at second reading and as a whole for the respective bill, No. 6565, at a plenary meeting of parliament on Thursday, December 7.
The draft law foresees that the National Council of Ukraine for Television and Radio Broadcasting will be able to issue, out of competition, a permit for temporary broadcasting in territories with a special broadcasting regime for up to one year. The permit will be granted on a free basis.
The bill in the wording for second reading envisaged that the territories with a special broadcasting regime are the areas bordering the occupied territory, as well as the border regions of Ukraine, to which the programs of the neighboring aggressor state are broadcasted by means of terrestrial analogue or digital television and radio broadcasting.
However, as a result of discussions, MPs agreed to determine that in this case a special regime will be in place in the areas bordering the occupied territory of Ukraine in Donbas and in Crimea.
"At the request of the Samopomich faction, I propose that the territory with a special broadcasting regime is the regions of Ukraine that border on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine - the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the head of the parliament's committee on freedom of speech and information policy, People's Front faction deputy Viktoria Siumar, said.
According to the bill, the procedure for issuing and cancelling the permit for temporary broadcasting, the conditions for permission and the procedure for exercising supervision over observance of the legislation during such broadcasting will be determined by the National Council of Ukraine for Television and Radio Broadcasting.
In addition, the document says that analogue broadcasting can be continued in the territory with a special broadcasting regime.
The law will enter into force a month after its publication, apart from certain provisions that come into force on the next day after publication.
