Reform Bogged Down, Experts Called

Michael Hedges August 7, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Forming a new public broadcasting system from old State institutions is never as simple as passing a law and changing the letterhead. All European public broadcasters have, in their own way, made that transition. But time entrenches all institutions and change is never easy.

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed legislation in April creating a unitary public broadcaster – National Public Service Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (PSBU).  Combined will be the National Television Company (NTU), National Radio Company (NRCU), a cultural broadcaster, an international broadcaster and all of the regional State broadcasting operations. Media watchers lauded the effort, as they had done after each earlier attempt at decommissioning Ukraine’s State broadcasting system, but continue to criticize implementation as details, like they will, block the road.

The new law “On the Public TV and Radio Broadcasting in Ukraine” ticked many of the right boxes. A supervisory board is to include representatives of the five “parliamentary factions” and nine members from “civil society organizations.” Sitting politicians were excluded from the supervisory board as well as persons without “high professional and moral qualities.” PSBU is to debut January 1st, 2015.

Funding being a critical issue, the State budget will pay all the bills and salaries for the first four years, spending “not less than 0.2%” of the State budget. Afterward, the new public broadcaster will be free to raise revenue from programs and services, collect copyright revenue and accept contributions and donations. Advertising cannot exceed 5% of any broadcast hour. Two national television channels and three national radio channels will remain, regional broadcasting – possibly – disappearing.

The third pillar of standard public service broadcasting practice, political independence, is apparent in the new Ukrainian law. The new public broadcaster will no longer be “obliged to cover the activities of executive authorities, other public bodies, local self-governance bodies and their officials.” It will be required to “provide an objective, full, timely and impartial coverage of events in Ukraine and abroad that are of public importance; to promote consolidation of the Ukrainian society, to develop and strengthen the Ukrainian language and culture, encourage development of the national minorities’ languages and cultures (and) to promote the fullest satisfaction of informational, cultural and educational needs of Ukrainians.”

“With the adoption of this law the Ukrainian Parliament is clearly abandoning the concept of state-controlled media and introducing international standards of public service broadcasting,” said OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mijatovic in a statement (May 14). “Broadcasters funded by the public must serve the public and not the political leadership. The new public broadcasting company will now need to set the standards of independence, pluralism and professional standards for all media in Ukraine.” A previous Ukrainian government committed to creating a public broadcasting institution in 2005.

Glowing representations aside, setting up a new public broadcasting institution is today a middling priority for Ukraine’s government immersed as it is in a hot and bloody conflict with pro-Russian separatists, tensions within political and business factions with attendant money woes. Named chairman of the State Committee on Radio and Television in March, Oleg Nalyvayko, also National Union of Journalists chairman, said combining NTU and NRCU into the PSBC is fairly simple. “There are no contradictions,” he told Telekritika (July 25). Adding in the 25 regional operations “has several problems” as agreement among them will take more time. “Taking a fast approach can pull the plug out of the whole project.” He suggests merging national radio and TV in the first year then taking another year to add in regional operations. The regional State broadcasters are organizationally separate from the NTU and NRCU, each employing between two and three hundred people.

A few months ago there were 27 regional state broadcasters in Ukraine, typically with one TV channel and one radio channel. Crimean regional state channels, and all others, were seized in March by Russian forces and supporters and fully converted to services of State broadcasting of the Russian Federation. In April pro-Russian separatists seized the Donetsk unit, aiming to replace Ukrainian broadcasts with Russian content.   

As with its other challenges, Ukraine does not suffer a shortage of outside experts ready to offer advice. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) at the request of NTU director general Zurab Alasania sent a delegation headed by former EBU vice president Boris Bergant at the end of July. The highly respected Mr. Bergant was deputy director at RTV Slovenia during its successful transition from State broadcasting and secretary general of European regional public television broadcaster association Circom Regional, experience necessary to tackle the unique situation in Ukraine. The EBU has intervened in recent years for challenged public broadcasters in Greece and Hungary.

The State administration of the Rivne Oblast, northwest Ukraine, is not at all pleased with the prospect of losing their regional broadcasting outlets. “It is definitely needed,” said regional governor Sergey Rybachka, quoted by Telekritika (August 5), “because it primarily provides local news coverage.”

“It’s clear that reform is needed,” he continued. “But you do not want just a name change. You must talk about the content. To just eliminate regional public broadcasters I think is a premature decision.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

Public Broadcasting - Arguments, Battles and Changes

Public broadcasters have - mostly - thrown off the musty stain of State broadcasting. And audiences for public channels are growing. But arguments and battles with politicians, publishers and commercial broadcasters threatens more changes. The ftm Knowledge file examines all sides. 168 pages PDF (March 2014)

Order here