The retransmission of “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” TV channel was suspended for 6 months
On February 7 the National Council decided to temporarily (for 6 months) suspend retransmission in Ukraine of the “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” (“Our favorite cinema”) TV channel. The reason lies with repeated violations of the national legislation on broadcasting of audiovisual works with the participation of individuals who pose a threat to the national security.
The “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” TV channel is under the jurisdiction of Germany and was included into the List of Foreign Programmes, the content of which complies with the requirements of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and of the legislation of Ukraine, in April 2008.
During the past year, citizens appealed to the National Council repeatedly with complaints that this TV channel broadcasts content with artists who are included in the List of persons posing a threat to the national security. For its part, the Regulator, having carried out monitoring, appealed to the distributor of the foreign programme “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” in Ukraine – the “Sonar” LLC (in March, April and December 2018) and its rights holder – the company “RTVD video- und filmproduktionsgesellschaft MBH” (in December 2018) and informed about recorded violations of the legislation of Ukraine. Both the distributor and the owner were warned about the possible consequences of the unlawful display of audiovisual works, as contrary to the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine.
Upon the first appeal last spring, the National Council was assured that there would be no further violations. And on January 9 of 2019, the distributor sent a letter from the “RTVD video-und filmproduktions gesellschaft MBH” to the National Council by e-mail, stating that as of January 9, 2019, this legal entity is no longer a copyright holder of the “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” programme and/or the holder of a license to broadcast this programme. The new copyright holder did not inform the National Council of any such changes.
At the same time, the monitoring of the broadcast of this TV channel, conducted from 12 November 2018 till 06 January 2019, recorded a violation of part two of Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”. During this period, the TV channel “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” showed films, the participants of which were artists included in the aforementioned list.
Such works include “And It’s All About Him”, “Marriage”, “Open Book”, “At the Lake”, “Tartuffe”, “Youth of Peter”, “Per Aspera ad Astra”, “Visit to the Minotaur”, “The Feasts of Belshazzar, or Night with Stalin”, “Sparrow on Ice”, “Inspector of the Road Inspection”, “New Year’s Adventures of Masha and Vitya”, “American Grandpa”, “The Secret of the Snow Queen”, “Not the Luckiest Day”, “Almost Funny Story”, with the participation of L. Chursina, V. Talyzina, O. Tabakov, V. Telichkina, N. Bondarchuk, M. Boyarskiy, O. Mikhailov, V. Gaft, L. Yarmolnik, M. Mikhalkov, O. Bashirov.
Violations in the content of the foreign programme “Nashe Lubimoe Kino” indicate that it is not in conformity with the requirements of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”.
The Member of the National Council, Serhii Kostinskyi, during the discussion on this issue, noted that there was already a precedent when Ukrainian broadcasting channels showed movies with the participation of Russian actors, produced before 1991. “We have imposed sanctions, and now no Ukrainian television channel shows any Soviet or Russian films with the participation of these people,” he reminded. The same approach, in his opinion, should be adopted by the foreign TV programmes.
The position of the Regulator was confirmed by Ulyana Feshchuk, Deputy Chair of the National Council. The broadcaster, who at one time received a “warning notice” sanction for showing films with persons posing a threat to the national security, appealed in court. The decision of the court confirmed the legitimacy of the decision of the National Council, which in its activities is guided primarily by the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”, which clearly imposes a ban on such a product.
Germany and Ukraine are signatories to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. Article 28 of the Convention provides that none of its provisions shall prevent the Parties from applying stricter or more detailed rules than those provided for in this international instrument.
Since the violations in the broadcast of the television channel are obvious, serious and grave, leading to complicated social problems; and lasting more than two weeks after notification of them, in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 24 of the Convention, the receiving party may temporarily suspend the retransmission of the programme service, which violates the Convention.
Thus, the National Council suspended for six months the retransmission in Ukraine of the foreign programme “Nashe Lubimoe Kino”. The term of the prohibition starts from the date of publication of the Regulator’s decision.
Moreover, the National Council at the same meeting introduced amendments to the List of foreign programmes, the content of which meets the requirements of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and of the legislation of Ukraine. The name of the foreign programme “NuArt TV” was changed to “Quiz TV”. The thematic direction (genre) is indicated as entertainment (from 04:00 to 00:00) and the adult channel (retransmission is allowed 00:00 to 04:00 in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Public Morality”).
