Public Broadcasting in Ukraine will start on January 1, 2017. It was announced by Oleg Nalyvaiko, Head of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, during the round table “Public Broadcasting Content: Expectations and Demands”, arranged by the “Detector Media” under the auspice of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.
The debates were attended by managers of the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTKU), the representatives of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting (Goskomteleradio), NTKU branches, the Central Directorate of “Ukrainian Radio”, members of the Supervisory Board of the National Public Television and Radio Company (NSTU), representatives of NGOs, journalists and media lawyers.
The special guest of the event was Мårten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.
“I am sure that in two months we will make that way to start Public Broadcasting on January 1”, as stated by Oleg Nalyvaiko.
According to him, the Public Broadcaster will face two challenges in January 2017.
“The first challenge is the lack of originality in creating Public Broadcasting, since it was announced as far back as in April 2015, and the second problem is that the consoles with microphones and cameras will be operated by the same people as now”, as he pointed out.
So actually, according to the Head of the State Committee, it is very important to assist the future Public Broadcaster’s staff to adapt to new conditions.
The Head of Goskomteleradio also announced a conceptual vision for the approaches to form the content of the Public Broadcaster’s TV and radio channels. First of all, he called for relying upon the best European practice. By the way, it is reflected in the Charter of the Public Broadcaster, which is actually under approval.
“The Public Broadcasting of Ukraine should apply a formula that will mark it out from the state one, i.e. the broadcaster’s respect to the audience and the audience’s trust in the broadcaster, as Oleg Nalyvaiko pointed out. For the time being, this formula works a little differently, i.e. the broadcaster’s respect to the top-management and the top-management’s trust in the broadcaster. Here is one of the key elements to be modified”.
At that, in his opinion, first of all it is worth focusing on the genre diversity of broadcasts, as this is what is missed by state-owned and commercial broadcasters. Moreover, according to Oleg Nalyvaiko, it should not be created a single powerful TV or radio channel at the cost of regional broadcasters.
“It is critical to use the regional broadcasters’ capacities, and first of all, there should be a trust in them, and to look for the very ginger there”, as resumed by the Head Goskomteleradio.
