A press conference on the registration of the Public Joint-Stock Company “National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine” (PJSC NPBU) and further steps of the Ukrainian Public Broadcaster reform took place on 24 January 2017 in the Information Agency “Ukrinform”; it was organised in the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of the Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine”.

Public Broadcasting serves as a source of objective and impartial information, innovations, and various content that complies with high ethical standards as well as quality standards. BBC is Great Britain’s Public Broadcaster, in Austria it is ORF, in Sweden – SVT and in Ukraine from now on - PJSC NPBU.

In her opening remarks, Viktoria Siumar, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Expression and Information Policy noted: “Fight for the Public Broadcasting in Ukraine lasted long, and we have entered the final straight. Today, we have the Supervisory Board of the Public Broadcaster which is composed in an exemplary way and has the society’s trust; we have the support from the international organisations, the Council of Europe and the European Union Delegation to Ukraine - it is important. We have been through a lot of difficulties, however, changes which the audience should notice in the TV broadcasting are the most important thing that is yet to happen, and this will determine whether the reform was successful or not”.

The Member of the Parliament stressed that seeing the result - the refreshed channel demonstrating high standards of quality and offering to its audience those formats which the commercial channels lacked – was of the highest importance.

Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Mårten Ehnberg congratulated all the participants on the long awaited registration of the legal entity of the PJSC NPBU and stated that the Council of Europe had provided constant support to the process of creation of the Public Broadcasting in Ukraine for many years. In particular, the Council of Europe experts analyzed the law, contributed to the development of the Statute, procedures and process of the Supervisory Board members’ election, and later on – organised trainings and exposed the members of the Supervisory Board to the international experience. Moreover, the Council of Europe trained staff of the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) and supported both the audience research and information campaign on the Public Broadcasting. Mr Ehnberg said that the Council of Europe planned to continue supporting the development of the Public Broadcasting system in the future in the framework of its media project and also expressed his hope that during 2017 the Public Broadcaster would get the full financing according to the Law of Ukraine “On Public TV and Radio Broadcasting in Ukraine”. “Sufficient sustainable financing is the basis of the Public Broadcaster’s independence”, - underlined Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

Yurii Stets, Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine, noted the following: “We have fulfilled all obligations imposed on the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by the Law of Ukraine “On Public TV and Radio Broadcasting in Ukraine”. As a result, the PJSC NPBU was registered in time. Therefore, we keep our promises.  First of all, for me – these are the obligations to Ukraine and Ukrainians, not only to our European partners. The key challenge for the Ukrainian Government in 2017 is to ensure full financing of the PJSC NPBU according to the above mentioned Law. I am confident that each representative of the Ukrainian authorities realizes this responsibility. I guarantee that this year the Public Broadcaster will receive proper financing, full stop”.

Oleg Nalyvaiko, Chair of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting in Ukraine, who headed the Commission on transformation of the NTU into the PJSC NPBU stated: “On 19 January the State Committee started acting as the shareholder and administrator of the budget funds of PJSC NPBU. The Commission on transformation of the NTU into the PJSC NPBU ceased its work. In parallel, we are working on the Eurovision: everything goes as planned, there are no major problems, only current issues. Also, by the end of 2017 we plan to corporatize Ukrtelefim which will become a part of the PJSC NPBU according to the Law”.

Responding to the question of Viktoria Siumar on further actions on the Public Broadcaster’s reforming, Ganna Bychok, acting Chair of the Management Board of the PJSC NPBU, said that all internal mechanisms of the company should be reviewed, and stressed that  content was the most significant element. According to her, this element would be difficult to change due to the insufficient financing of the Public Broadcaster in 2017 -  the budget lacks more than UAH 300 mln, however, according to the Law of Ukraine “On Public Television and Radio  Broadcasting in Ukraine” the amount should be no less than UAH 1,2 billion. Ms Bychok expressed the hope that PJSC NPBU would experience same strong support from the relevant state authorities, international organisations, and media community at the future stages of the reform, as it did during the first steps of the reform.

Igor Rozkladai, the leading expert of the RPR-Media Group, stressed: “The Public Broadcaster is facing some important challenges today. Primarily, it has to be reorganized in a way that it is able to use the funds allocated for the PJSC NPBU in the most efficient way that is only possible. It is necessary to work on the content, develop multiplatform broadcasting in order to embrace young generation who are active internet and applications users. Secondly, the vision on the Public Broadcaster’s structure should be finalized by the moment the Head and the Members of the Management Board are elected, and the Supervisory Board will choose the model that suits best our reality. Currently, at the third attempt to reform the Public Broadcasting, the main thing is that we have the right people in place who made the reform possible”.

Seven members of the Supervisory Board also took part in the press conference. All of them are optimistic despite a lot of work ahead. As Svitlana Ostapa stated, since 19 January the Supervisory Board had already held two meetings where the first decisions were adopted:  the Regulations on election of the Head and Members of the Management Board of the PJSC NPBU and the Main directions of the activity of the PJSC NPBU for 2017. The working group is working on the terms and conditions of the competition which the Supervisory Board is going to approve and make public on 30 January 2017. “This competition will not be the competition of faces or charisma, it will be the competition of concepts”, - noted Ms Ostapa. Oleksii Panych added that the Supervisory Board had determined six main directions of the PJSC NPBU’s activity for 2017 and that those would serve as a roadmap for the applicants for the post of the Head of the Management Board; the applicants would be expected to implement the mentioned roadmap.

The Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of the Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine” is aimed to enhance the role of media and the public broadcaster in particular as an instrument for consensus building in the Ukrainian society. The Project is implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017. In 2017 the Project is financed from the budget of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017.