The Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine rejects the appeals of Channel 5, TBi and STB
Experts think the “frequency case” is symptomatic of Ukraine’s monopolized media marketThe Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine rejected the TV channel’s appeals in the so-called frequency case. The board of justices passed a resolution on January 26, 2011, upholding the decision of the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals dated August 30, 2010; according to it the decision of the National Council for Television and Radio dated January 27, 2010, to determine the winners of a competition for frequencies, was declared unlawful, and the licenses of Channel 5 and the addenda to the license of TBi became invalid. The Day reported about the course of the process in detail (No. 155, September 1, 2010).
The decision of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine means that TBi will not broadcast (except for satellite), and the scope of the broadcast of Channel 5 (that was deprived of additional frequencies) will remain unchanged.
TBi’s director general Mykola Kniazhytsky and Channel 5’s legal representative Tetiana Malashenkova announced their intention to further appeal against the decision of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine in the Supreme Court, and if the decision doesn’t satisfy them — in the European Court of Human Rights.
“The ‘frequency case’ is closely connected with many continuous processes of media market monopolization, which started already after the orange revolution,” points out an expert of the Media Law Institute, the media lawyer Ihor Rozkladai. “Today three or four major players control the Ukrainian television sector, small television companies experience considerable pressure. From this viewpoint one can speak about restrictions on the freedom of speech, and interference from the side of Valerii Khoroshkovsky, who has a corresponding conflict of interests as a state official and so far is the [country’s] biggest media tycoon. Certainly, there are still many questions regarding the lawfulness of the procedure during the January frequencies distribution. The question is whether such a competition was really necessary, taking into account the preparation for the transition to a digital standard. In other words, in this case there are too many questions; but speaking about its social importance, I will support Channel 5 and TBi. In view of the threatening tendencies on the media market, these television companies should continue fighting.”
A dissident, human rights activist, the last president of Czechoslovakia (1989-92) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993-2003) Vaclav
Havel; the founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, the head of Ukrainian department of the international PEN-club Myroslav Marynovych; a Polish public and political activist, the founder of Gazeta Wyborcza Adam Michnik; a correspondent of Gazeta Wyborcza Marcin Wojciechowski; a prominent cultural activist, dissident, Slovakia’s ex-minister of culture Ladislav Snopko, and Article 19 [a prominent NGO that fights for freedom of expression around the world. – Ed.] also expressed their support for TBi.
