The new bill of Broadcasting Act will make the TV
and radio stations dependent on political interests, claims CE media expert
Marju Laur. The bill was drawn up by Culture Ministry vice-chancellor
Peeter Sookruus and his associate Aime Vesmes, who have stressed in an
accompanying letter that the document meets all the EU requirements.
‘Eesti P Evaleht’ interviewed Rein Lang, board chairman
of Trio LSL, which owns four radio stations, and who claimed that the government
aims at seizing political control over the radio stations and closing down
the unfriendly ones. The authors of the draft law claim that the
issue of broadcasting licences must be restricted, since the frequency
band available is of limited width. The bill stipulates that the
current licence owners will have to apply for a renewal and that the previous
licence owners will have to compete with possible new applicants at an
equal standing.
Laur pointed out that this may permit the government
to deprive an existing and popular station of the licence. The winner
of the frequency tender will have to compensate the previous owner’s investments
and the government will decide the amount, unless the parties reach an
agreement.
The bill also demands that the TV and radio stations
will have to increase their own production to 25 per cent from 20 per month,
while the amount of European production will have to be increased to 51
per cent of total. Rein Lang commented that this demand, enforced
by the European Union, will deprive the Estonian TV viewers of popular
US series, which will be replaced by unpopular European production.
ETA news agency, Tallinn, August 17, 1998
II. Government approves new broadcasting bill.
A broadcasting bill that proceeds from EU requirements
and entails changes of principle has been approved by the government and
will now be sent to the Riigikogu [parliament].
Under the bill, by the year 2003 at least 51 per
cent of television programmes must be produced in the EU. According
to Culture Minister Jaak Allik, Estonian production will be also include
in the 51 per cent. From 1st January 2003, 10 per cent of airtime
must be filled with programmes made by independent EU producers.
The changeover will take place gradually.
Among changes of principle, Allik noted that, compared
with the [broadcasting] law of 1994, public-service broadcasting would
be allocated a fixed percentage from the state budget and the control mechanism
would be changed. The bill does not yet determine the percentage.
The Ministry of Finance is seeking to set the appropriate amount.
Also, the new broadcasting bill will abolish the
requirement that no less than half of a television or radio station must
belong to Estonian citizens.
In line with the bill presented by the government,
commercial channels will also be required to broadcast politically balanced
information.
The broadcasting bill has separate chapters on Estonian
Radio and Estonian Television. Previously, the intention had been
to regulate them with a law on national broadcasting.
Estonian Radio, Tallinn, July 14, 1998
As it known, the Ministry of Information and Social Consent of Kazakstan two years ago put forward an initiative to abolish VAT on the production and selling of newspapers and journals. On the eve of the Day of Journalists, which was held on June 28, the minister, Sarsenbayev, reminded the government of his request for the swift introduction of beneficial taxation for the mass media of Kazakstan. President Nazarbayev and the Prime Minister, Balgimbayev, backed the minister s initiative and on July 3, the Law On taxes and other obligatory payments to the budget releasing mass media of VAT payment was issued. According to the finance ministry, this discount is expected to bring the country a profit of T 102 m.
Kazakstanskaya Pravda, July 7, 1998
[On 27th August] a meeting of the Presidium of the
Supreme Assembly of Tajikistan took place under the chairmanship of the
Tajik parliamentary speaker, Safarali Rajabov. Here is a report by
our correspondent.
[Correspondent] More than 10 issues related
to social, political and economic life were considered at the meeting.
In particular, members of the Supreme Assembly Presidium considered a report
by the parliamentary committee for international affairs, international
relations and culture on the implementation of the law of the Republic
of Tajikistan on television and radio broadcasting by the Television and
Radio Committee under the government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
The chairman of the Television and Radio Committee, Sayfullo Rahimov, and
the chairman of the Supreme Assembly committee [and also a member of the
National Reconciliation Commission of Tajikistan], Ibrohim Usmonov, delivered
a report on this.
The chairman of the Supreme Assembly, Safarali Rajabov,
drew the participants’ attention to shortcomings existing in the implementation
of the law of the Republic of Tajikistan on television and radio broadcasting.
In particular, because there are a limited number of programmes of the
republic’s radio and television, other programmes fill up the country’s
information space. This circumstance will have a negative impact
on the republic’s ideology. Some electronic media of the republic
and foreign countries circulate their programmes without any licence, which
is in violation of the said law.
The chairman of the Television and Radio Committee
stressed that in order to fill the republic’s information space, officials
on the committee have plans to set up a second channel of television and
enlarge the scope of television and radio programmes. A resolution
adopted by the Presidium of the Supreme Assembly emphasizes that the Television
and Radio Committee is to concentrate in its work on points of the law
of the Republic of Tajikistan on television and radio broadcasting.
Tajik Radio first programme, Dushanbe, August 27, 1998
At their first meeting, parliamentarians approved
the procedure for opening up the second session of the Supreme Council
(parliament) to the media. Apparently, this prompted Speaker Oleksandr
Tkachenko to report that journalists write about anything that comes along
and that “they get the people excited about nothing.”
So that this no longer occurs, a Supreme Council
resolution is ensuring that listeners will have the pleasure of enjoying
the linguistic pearls of their elected representatives every day in live
radio broadcasts on Channel One [Ukrainian Radio First Programme].
But the second or third readings of legislation won’t be broadcast on the
radio.
Those wishing to view the whole parliamentary show
will be able to on UT-1 [Ukrainian Television First Programme]: from
1900 to 2300, i.e. in prime time, on days when plenary sessions are
held, the programme “ Parlamentskaya Tribuna” will be broadcast; and every
Saturday, political gourmets will have the chance to watch the programme
“ Parlamentskiy Vestnik” live.
Ukrainian radio is also not going to leave its listeners
in the dark: every day, and also during the evening, 45 minutes of
political information, along with representatives of parliamentary factions,
will delight the ear of housewives preparing the family supper. Thus,
the majority of the population will be up to date on all the operative
news in the political kitchen.
‘Fakty i Kommentarii,’ Kiev, September 3, 1998
In line with Resolution 130 of the cabinet of
ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan on further measures to make the
moral and spiritual atmosphere more healthy and to prevent dogmatism, a
social and political, economic, scientific and educational, cultural and
musical, sport and entertainment channel for young people has been set
up at Uzbek Television. The channel will start broadcasting its programmes
on 1st September. It should be stressed that the initiator of the
channel is our head of state, Islam Karimov. For this reason, in
the run-up to the opening of the youth channel, our president, Islam Karimov
gave the following interview to wish the channel prosperity:
[Karimov] I would like to take the opportunity
to say that seeing you young people surrounding me, I say again and again
that I am confident that we will see our bright future. God willing
these days are entering our life. Our future, of course, will be
prosperous.
In answer to your question I would like to say that
we have yet more things to do. Addressing our young people, I would
like some of my thoughts, requests if you like, to be expressed on 1st
September, Independence Day, the seventh anniversary, when we launch this
programme. In our first words we devote to our Independence Day,
in this programme, my request is that I want to pass on my wishes addressed
to young people. I embrace my young people, the youth of Uzbekistan,
the youth of our nation, those to whom we will be broadcasting in future.
I would be happy if you pass them my love.
The main meaning of this programme, of this youth
channel, is to open up the world for our young people and teach them to
have their own view and think wisely. I repeat it one more time—to
teach them to think wisely and to be not worse than others and understanding
the deep meaning and aims of our democratic society today, let us say our
just society, to make them feel that they are the builders and the owners
of the future. I see in this the main aim of this channel.
I wish the channel’s founders, those who are committed
to this channel, those who gathered together to start this very big task,
the activists, the young men, lads like you, great successes and, also,
good luck.
Uzbek Television first channel, Tashkent, August 30, 1998