Monitoring media pluralism in the digital era : preliminary study to the implementation of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2024 in Ukraine

In 2023 in Ukraine the legal regime of martial law continued to be enacted, accordingly a partial restriction of the right to freedom of expression was preserved. The Law of Ukraine "On Media" entered into force in March 2023. In particular, it implemented the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, widened a range of subjects in the sphere of media whose activities are being regulated, including activities of online media, established guarantees of independence of the National Council of Ukraine for Television and Radio Broadcasting that certainly improved Ukrainian media legislation. However, in 2023 such guarantees of media regulator's independence were weakened by the decision of the Ukrainian Parliament decreasing the volume of National Council's funding, established by the Law "On Media". This made the national media regulator dependent on the executive and legislative branches of power. As of April 2024 several judgments of the European Court of Human Rights related to the media sphere in Ukraine were not fully implemented. In general, problems that appeared in the sphere of access to public information after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine remained the same as in the year 2022.