Steps in Lviv to eradicate legal illiteracy among journalists

The Lviv Region Association of Media Lawyers, with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation and USAID, has begun a project aimed at improving basic legal understanding among journalists. A legal bulletin for the mass media is to be published twice a month and will be provided to all interested individuals and organizations.

The director of the project “Unwavering adherence to the law in the information realm” Tetyana Yatskiv explains that the need for such a project became evident from the results of a sociological survey among media workers. “It turned out that around 70% of the journalists are not familiar with the legislative acts which relate to their professional and labour rights”.  The project envisages using an Internet bulletin to inform journalists about both laws already passed on the mass media, and about draft laws prepared for discussion. Information will also be provided about the legal aspects of journalists’ work in Europe.

The first bulletin, for example, is about journalists’ rights as authors and about penalties for infringements of these rights. The Association of Media Lawyers hope that as part of this project they will involve journalists in discussing legal acts which concern their rights and which could in the future have an impact on their work.