Over 90 representatives of Ukrainian local, hyperlocal print and online media outlets took part in an online seminar on 4 March on "Registration of the Print Media" held by the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine (National Council) in co-operation with the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NSJU) and the Council of Europe Project “Safeguarding Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Media in Ukraine” (SFEM-UA).

The event aimed at providing clarifications on the registration and re-registration procedure for the print media introduced by the new Law “On Media” of Ukraine (the Law), which entered into force in March 2023. The Law introduced mandatory registration for the print media, which will be free-of-charge till 31 March 2024, and further will be subjected to a fee.

The National Council informed the participants of the event that, as of 4 March 2024, 1,513 print media outlets have already benefited from the free of charge registration. The highest number of registrations is from Kyiv (365 media), followed by Volyn (235 media), Lviv (125 media), and Kharkiv (131 media) regions. Approximately 400 applications are currently being processed. It is envisaged that following the clarifications received during the online seminar more print media outlets will be able to finalise the registration process by the end of March 2024 allowing them to benefit from the free-of-charge services.

The Council of Europe Project “Safeguarding Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Media in Ukraine” (SFEM-UA) is implemented by the Council of Europe Division for Co-operation on Freedom of Expression within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2023-2026).