On the Agenda: Legal Education for Ukrainian Journalists

The legal environment regulating business relations in Ukraine has changed comprehensively over the years; so much so that, really, only professional lawyers can be well versed in the meaning of these dynamic changes. So, what about the journalists who report economic, business, finance and regulatory policy? They were taught neither jurisprudence, nor to understand the “art” of using the language of law.  They typically do not have even a general understanding of the arcane application of legal language, nor the application of the law, to say nothing of specific problem areas such as the legal inconsistencies between the Civil and Commercial Codes. Without comprehending the legal aspects of economic issues, the details of specific topics will not be reported completely, and will be of poor quality. The ongoing transformation of the commercial legal framework demands, however, that journalists learn and comprehend these processes, in order to increase public awareness of changes to the law.

The Commercial Law Center, drawing on its deep experience with commercial legislation, has developed a legal education program for mass media that has been consistently implemented, not only in Kyiv, but in the other regions of Ukraine as well. This program, entitled “Commercial Law School,” brings together media and experienced legal advisers who, in simple and straightforward lay terms, educate journalists on rather complicated topical areas, including intellectual property rights, commercial secrets, how to report on disputes and litigation, and what one should know about the Civil Code, the ‘economic constitution’ of Ukraine.

This program was subsequently modified to take into account the time pressures journalists feel, and which were communicated to us:  “Can you teach us the novelties of legislation in an hour and a half?’ – asks Andryi Kulish, Director of the media department for the Center for Ukrainian Reform in Education (CURE). It was an unusual job for our legal experts to compress and simplify this information, but we refined the program to meet the requests of the audience. Journalists are offered a compressed, concentrated informational bloc, focused on the practical and dispensing with a deep theoretical and detailed background explanation of the issues.

This marked the beginning of fruitful multi-year cooperation between the Commercial Law Center and CURE. Ten press club meetings held in Donetsk, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities familiarized local journalists with numerous legal novelties, including laws on mortgage, bankruptcy, leasing, credit bureaus, judicial enforcement, business registration, etc.  A key feature of the meetings with press clubs is the opportunity to engage in question and answer with the CLC’s legal advisers.  The format provides the journalists the opportunity to ask as many questions on legal topics as they like.  Frequently, the dialog finds its way to the the general public through newspapers and journals, TV and radio programs. The most recent press club meeting was held in Vynnytsya city, in March 2006, where the CLC discussed the new and exciting creation of the national electronic registries for judicial decisions and the commercial registry.

So far, over 300 journalists from throughout Ukraine have developed a better insight into, and understanding of legal issues and current events in the legislative process.