Media Law Instituteand NIRAS, an international consultancycompany headquartered in Denmark,are organising a side event within the OSCE Human DimensionImplementation Meeting in Warsaw on 25 September 2013.

The expertdiscussion shall be devoted to Transparency of Media Ownership in the EasternPartnership Countries and Turkey. As observed, lack of the mediaownership transparency, which is witnessed nowadays in the EaP countries and Turkey, seemsto tangibly jeopardize pluralism in the sector. Wide public in this region haslittle or no reliable information on the owners of media companies, whereasdrawbacks of national legislation on access to information allows the localpoliticians and oligarch groups make use of the existing advantages and acquiremass media through intermediaries.

With the topicalityof the media ownership transparency in the EaP region and Turkey, a pool ofexperts from Article 19, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, andTurkey will share their country-specific experience on the matter with a viewto work out jointly the recommendations on its improvement. Speakers from the OSCERepresentative on Freedom of the Media office and from Article 19 are alsoexpected to intervene on minimum regulatory guarantees to ensure thetransparency of media ownership, as well as representative of the Ukrainiandelegation in OSCE, chairing this year.

As a result of theevent, experts are expected to table their follow-up recommendations onpossible ways to ensure media ownership transparency in their country. Also,sub-topics for further research shall be identified and next activitiesconsidered.

Would be glad youcould join our expert discussion.

Venue: Meeting Room 3;Sofitel Warsaw Victoria hotel, Ul. Królewska 11, 00-065 Warsaw, Poland.

Time: 18.00-19.30. Wednesday, 25 September 2013.

Contact person:

Ms Tetiana Semiletko, MediaLaw Institute (Kyiv, Ukraine).

E-mail address: tetiana.s@medialaw.kiev.ua;tel./fax: +38.044.496.05.80

 This event is organized with support of DANIDA.