The Commission to Confront Propaganda, a consultative body for cross-border media complaints, met for the first time on 14 September 2017 in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Its mandate is to consider complaints from any of the seven participating countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and the Russian Federation) about media operating in another country of the region.
The Commission will issue recommendations, provide guidance and set standards corresponding to the commonly accepted principles of journalism ethics.
As part of its first meeting, the Commission discussed five cross-border complaints from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine on publications which, according to their initiators, disseminate hate speech, discrimination, racism and xenophobia.
The meeting, which brought together eleven participants from the seven countries, was supported in the framework of a regional project of the joint EU/Council of Europe Partnership for Good Governance entitled “Promote Professional Journalism by Supporting Regional Network of Self-regulatory Bodies”.