Druhyi etap rozderzhavlennia presy: rezultaty ta problemy

Abstract

The article traces back the second stage of the print media denationalization in Ukraine spanning 2017―2018s. This reform aimed to cancel out the influence of central and local public authorities on the editorial staffs. This paper analyzes the official data available on the website of the State Committee for Television and Broadcasting of Ukraine. The latter body is the main coordinator responsible for the reform implementation of print media denationalization in Ukraine. Additionally, we trace back by stages how the Oblasts and mass media there entered and completed the process, who were the leaders in terms of + and – signs at each stage. Considering the data as well as the reaction of the media community, the author states that in the course of this process, mass media faced a wide range of problems. Those may be classified according to their problematic criteria into legal and organizational. Legal problems were: non-acceptance of amendments to the fundamental law about clear definition of the possibility to form an editorial staff by means of withdrawal; redefining the matters of property lease, suspension of transfer of property that was in editorial offices’ ownership; extra procedures for the protection of rights of editors and journalists that were not able to launch the process because of inactivity of central and local public authorities. Organizational obstacles included the following ones: a lack of the mechanism of effective influence of co-founders on the necessity to make a decision about the start of reforming; lack of cooperation between the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the State Committee for Television and Broadcasting of Ukraine as well as absence of the mechanism of control over the data of Mass Media Register for the latter; unauthorized dismissal of editors; transfer of the founders’ rights to state-owned and municipal enterprises; output of the property meant to pass into the ownership from the enterprise’s ownership and so on. Besides, the author claims that Poltava Oblast has become an indisputable leader both in percentage and quantitative terms with its 29 reformed mass media amounting to 93% of all print media. Kyiv has shown the worst results in implementing the reforming process — 0 %. Keywords: denationalization, print media, problems of reform, the second stage.