Chernotytsky: Suspilne will either stay on the telethon or expand Pershiy broadcasting
The PBCU board chair Mykola Chernotytsky declared that pressure on Suspilne Broadcasting is unacceptable and the company is ready to either stay on the telethon on parity terms, or expand its broadcasting on Pershiy channel.
He made the statement at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and the Committee on Freedom of Speech on May 2, reports Detector Media.
"It is unacceptable that deputies put pressure on Suspilne. We are a completely transparent company, we make all the data public – from procurement to bookings," said Mykola Chernotytsky.
He also said that Suspilne Broadcasting was considering two possible courses of action.
"We either stay on the parity terms, or we go for the model where Souspilne expands its broadcasting on Pershiy. I also must have an understanding that this is legal, that it complies with the President's decrees, the NSDC decisions. We must have guarantees that in case we are removed from the telethon we will not be accused of undermining national security and will be able to start broadcasting on our channel," said Mykola Chernotytskyi.
The same opinion was expressed by the head of Suspilne's supervisory board, Svitlana Ostapa, who noted that "we need written guarantees that Pershiy will not be taken from us and that we will not be declared to be violating the NSDC decision."
At the end of a long discussion, the members of the Committees approved two statements and will continue consultations as they work further.
The first statement pledges to promote the development of Suspilne Broadcasting and provide it with sufficient funding for the coming year. The second statement is about observing the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the media.
"All citizens should have access to reliable information," stressed the head of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Mykyta Poturayev.
Today VRU Committees discussed the pressure on Suspilne Broadcasting, namely the attacks by deputy Maryana Bezuhla and attempts to remove Suspilne Broadcasting from the evening slots of the national telethon "United News".
Previously
It was reported on April 24 that the US State Department included the national telethon "United News" in its report on human rights violations in Ukraine in 2023. The report noted that the telethon provided the government with an "unprecedented level of control over primetime television news."
On April 24, deputy Maryana Bezugla made several Facebook posts on the feasibility of funding six state-owned channels, listing Suspilne as a "state-owned" broadcaster, too.
She noted that Suspilne, Dom and FreeDom have a small outreach and "diversify money allocation", and offered to fund just channel instead, namely, Rada or Suspilne.
On April 25, Svitlana Ostapa, the head of the Suspilne Supervisory Board, reported that the government plans to remove Suspilne from the evening slots of the telethon. The Suspilne Supervisory Board came out with a counter-proposal regarding the telethon slot reassignment: to give all primetime slots to Suspilne.
On April 29, Suspilne appealed to the heads of four Verkhovna Rada committees with a request to assess the statements by deputy Maryana Bezuhla and to look into the attempt at putting pressure on the media company and undermining the reform to create an independent broadcaster, which was one of the prerequisites for Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
On April 30, the Media Movement members called to cease pressure on Suspilne and to let the company keep the evening primestime slots in the telethon.
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