“When in 2005 Tetiana Oleksiyuk, Igor Rozkladaj and I founded Media Law Institute, we did not think that soon we will become one of the most influential civil society organisations. Today a range of our activities has broadened, and, currently, we implement a significantly bigger number of initiatives. In partnership with civic and donor organisations we expanded our spheres of activities”, – explained Taras Shevchenko, director of Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law at the presentation of a new name. However, he re-assured that activities of the organisation in media legislation and media law field will be left under a well-known brand Media Law Institute.

In general, Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law will be working on three strategic goals:

• To create supportive media environment;
• To support and implement civic initiatives;
• To fight corruption.

The guests of the event welcomed news about re-branding of Media Law Institute and wished the team of Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law success and new accomplishments.

“You [MLI] have a solid basis and are widely recognized in Ukraine as well as abroad. You demonstrated right approaches when managing the projects and became a leader among civil society organisations. It is nice that you carry your knowledge to people in regions and start a complex judicial reform, which is highly needed and expected in Ukraine”, – mentioned of the coordinator of the Swedish development cooperation programs Olha Sedova. 

“When I heard that Media Law Institute is changing its name, I got scared at first. What we are going to do without MLI, I thought. Not a day passed without calling to lawyers of MLI and asking for their expertise and comments on a particular case in media. I am thankful for 11 years long partnership and I believe in further fruitful cooperation”, – said the member of Supervisory Board of National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine, media expert of NGO Telekritika Svitlana Ostapa. 

2-minutes long video of Media Law Institute transformation into Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law can be found here.