ATR staff reduced by 45%, due to funding shortage

Photo credit: ATR

Due to underfunding, ATR TV channel has reduced 45% of its staff. ATR owner Lenur Islamov told it interviewed by Detektor Media.

About 40 persons have been fired, journalists, film directors and others. News editions have been also cut and live broadcasts have been suspended. Islamov added that the channel was on the verge of closing.

“Due to shortage of funding, we had to reduce not only the number of news editions, but also live (live) broadcasts from Crimea. We had to recall four journalists who worked in Crimea. We have now suspended the production of all the programs we were making from Crimea. We just cannot afford it, ” Islamov said.

Since a month now, Islyamov’s group has been unable to dub the content for the children's TV channel Lale. ATR along with the Lale children's channel and the Meydan radio station are parts of Islyamov holding company.

At the beginning of the year, the private Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR was on the verge of closing due to the suspension of financial support from the state budget. In the second half of 2019, ATR received from the state 15 million UAH ($617 thousand). ATR has been receiving financial support from the state budget since 2016 through the budget program of resettlement and arrangement of Crimean Tatars and persons of other nationalities deported from the territory of Ukraine.