Three years ago the Parliament adopted the framework Law of Ukraine on Public Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine. A year later the President signed the amendments that launched the transformation procedure of the state broadcasters. The first stage of the reform was delayed for 3 years and only on 19 January 2017 the legal entity of the Public broadcasting was registered – Public Joint-Stock Company “National Television and Radio broadcasting Company of Ukraine” (PJSC NPBU).
Public broadcasting is a specific type of broadcasting which balances between private and state broadcasting. It embraces high journalistic standards, social responsibility and responsibility towards different social groups. To guarantee the independence of the public broadcasters the system of checks and balances is established. It reduces the impact of political and other groups' influence to the fullest extent possible. The elements of such system include the Supervisory Board, the procedure of the Management Board selection, the guarantees of financial security and prohibitions to interfere into the editorial policy. Supervisory Board of PJSC NPBU which was elected in the end of 2015, assumed the office on 19 January 2017 and announced the launch of the competition for the Head of the Management Board of PJSC NPBU, which was held on 10 April 2017.
Right before the competition, on 7 April 2017, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) and the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine in the framework of the Project “Strengthening Freedom of the Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine” held the international conference “Independent governing bodies of Public broadcaster - key prerequisite for the successful reform”. The conference gave the ability to hold the public expert discussion on the matter of what the Public broadcasting should be like in Ukraine, how the Public broadcasting is connected with the democratic vector of Ukraine and if the proposed concepts of the Public broadcasting development correspond to the Public broadcasting principles and the current state of newly created PJSC NPBU that inherited all baggage of the state broadcasting.
More than 150 participants took part in conference among which were representatives of international organizations, diplomatic missions, Ambassadors of the European Union, United States, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, candidates for the position of the Head of Management Board of PJSC NPBU, media lawyers, journalists, and civil society activists. All participants of the event received the Handbook with the Council of Europe Documents on Public Broadcasting, a publication that contains all key Council of Europe standards on Public broadcasting translated into Ukrainian, namely on guarantees of independence, managament, financial procedures, mission and tasks.
The first part of the conference was dedicated to a high level discussion of the representatives of Ukraine and international community who highlighted the exceptional importance of the Public broadcasting governing bodies' independence which constitutes the key prerequisite for the successful reform.
Tetyana Lebedyeva, Head of the Supervisory Board of PJSC NPBU, pointed out the importance of independence of Public broadcasting, “One of the main features of the Public broadcasting is complete independence from any possible pressure. And this is where the challenge lies - to build a center of impartiality and independence in the society when the latter is not ready for it. We have to learn to be Public broadcasting’s consumer and partner without any efforts to manually control it". According to Mrs Lebedeva, a lot depends on how quickly the viewer will be able to detect the quality changes in the content.
Yurii Stets, Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine highlighted that the authorities would not put pressure on the Public broadcaster’s Supervisory Board during the election process. “There was and there will be no pressure on Supervisory Board in terms of selection of the Head of the Management board. The main aspect is that the person who wins receives the support from all those in power. We all should rally around the person who becomes the leader of the Public broadcasting. From my side I will provide all-round support”.
"The team of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine provides constant and vigorous support to the creation of the Public broadcaster in Ukraine“, Mårten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine highlighted. "Impartial Public broadcasting should be present in every country that would broadcast actual, undistorted information. This is very important for the development of independent, democratic country especially in the modern post-fact world where all facts are questioned and there is a need for impartial sources of information", - he noted.
Hugues Mingarelli, EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine noted, “Let the strategies and visions of candidates compete with each other. Let us all wish that the Supervisory board selects the best candidate, with the best track record, strategy and vision”.
According to Marie Louise Yovanovitch, US Ambassador to Ukraine, the Public broadcasting is an important factor of a country development, “Access to independent information is a key aspect for democracies, especially for fledgling democracies like Ukraine. And I think that independent public broadcaster can help make that a reality, because independent broadcasters are, by definition, free from interference amd pressure, and they work for the public”.
Ernst Reichel, Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine, focused on independence of Public broadcasting commenting that it was one of the most important principles. Mr. Ernst added that at that time period pluralism was present in Ukrainian mass-media, but there was no independence. In his view, this factor was of vital importance for the Public broadcasting. As it would guarantee that the broadcasting would not be politically influenced.
Gert Antsu, Ambassador of Estonia to Ukraine spoke about the value of the Public broadcasting based on the example of his country. Ambassador stressed in his speech that without the high standards of Public broadcasting, it would be very difficult for Estonia to cope with Russia’s and English speaking mass-media’s information pressure. Ambassador Antsu, pointed out that the Public broadcaster unites the public, as people watch the same programs and that has the power of cementing the society.
Eve Salomon, Council of Europe expert (United Kingdom), and Boris Bergant, former Vice-President of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and currently Senior EBU Consultant, reminded to the participants about the Council of Europe and European standards in the field of public broadcasting and underlined that the competition should be held in an independent and maximum transparent way. “Politicians will seek for the opportunity to influence the editorial policy of the Public broadcaster. Therefore, it is very important that the Supervisory Board and newly shaped Management Board of NPBU are constantly ready to resist this pressure and say “No” to such politicians. There should be no interference into the editorial policy of Public broadcaster neither from the side of the authorities, nor from the side of business structures” – Mrs. Solomon commented.
“Trust to the NPBU’s governing body will become the key to successful development of Public broadcasting. The NPBU’s governing body should defend the interests of the team and journalists. Distribution of functions is very important. This body initiates to the Parliament the necessary changes needed by the Public broadcasting; designs the development strategy; defines a clear vision and mission of the broadcaster”, Mr. Bergant noted.
Igor Rozkladay, lawyer of CSO CEDEM, focused on changes that should occur at the level of regional broadcasters. “Public broadcaster is to be united into one legal entity despite the decentralization movement. Such situation can be explained by the fact that the heads of the Regional TV and Radio Companies were approved by the heads of regional administrations, which is a direct political influence on the broadcaster. By excluding such influence and by switching to the competition system we would avoid such trap. Single program policy and broadcasting standards should strengthen the independence and quality of broadcasting” –the expert states. Mr. Rozkladay also underlined that the Public broadcasting would be less oriented on entertainment, however, its main task was to develop the country and support the democracy.
The second part of the conference was dedicated to the discussion of the concepts of the candidates for the position of the Head of the Management Board of PJSC NPBU. Zurab Alasania, Roman Vybranovskiy, Yuriy Darahan, Oleksandr Zyrin, Oleksandr Zorka, Oleksandr Kovalenko, Oleh Nalyvaiko and Marek Sierant shortly presented their visions of the Public broadcasting development and answered the questions from the moderators and participants.. What the Public broadcasting will look like in Ukraine and what Ukraine will get as a result of the reform depends on the Head of the Management Board. This concerns the structure, management system, content, traditions, and standards of impartial journalism at the Public broadcaster.
The conference was organized by CSO “Center for Democracy and Rule of Law” (CEDEM) and the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine in the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of Media and Establishing a Public System in Ukraine” which aims to enhance the role of the media and the public broadcaster in particular as an instrument for consensus building in Ukrainian society. The Project is implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017.
