Civil society organizations call for fair 2025 funding to Suspilne
Civil society organizations call on the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada to support fair funding to the public broadcaster in the 2025 State Budget. This is stated in a joint address by eight NGOs.
The address says that in the war between Russia and Ukraine, Suspilne has demonstrated its key role in a crisis and a responsible and independent editorial policy – communicating with the audience on both traditional and digital platforms.
"In some places inaccessible to other media, especially in the temporarily occupied territories, Suspilne remained the only channel of information. Despite the war, Suspilne continues to produce high-quality content on history and culture, to develop platforms for children and teenagers, to expose Russia's major lies about our culture: language, books, cinema, sports, media; and to work with indigenous peoples and national minorities (communities)," the address says.
The authors also note that Suspilne's news are distributed in European public media as part of the exchange program: the news stories are streamed on 219 channels by 85 broadcasters around the world.
However, the NGOs remark, the people who make Suspilne what it is remain quite vulnerable, as the main source of funding for the broadcaster is the state budget.
The authors of the address remind that the law on public media in Ukraine stipulates that the broadcaster should receive 0.2% of the total state budget expenditures for the previous year, which would mean 5 billion in 2024 and over 6 billion in 2025.
"In wartime, when most of the state budget is being spent on defense, such a share would be legal, but not fair. However, it is also unfair when the salaries of the PBCU staff – the people creating the high-quality and independent content – are lower by 50% on average (and by over 80% in some cases) compared to similar positions in the commercial market," note the NGOs.
They add that such a situation makes the company "frankly uncompetitive on the labor market and results in the risk of losing the team, as the growing prices for necessities push them to look for other, more financially attractive jobs." The authors of the statement remind that Suspilne has already been in a critical situation when the payment of the already small salaries was significantly delayed due to lack of funding.
The NGOs note that they understand the funding priorities that must be set in when budget is strictly limited. However, they stress that the overtly genocidal war that Russia is waging on Ukraine is not about the landgrab, but about destroying identity. Therefore, Ukraine can only act asymmetrically – produce its own content and its own agenda.
"That's why fair funding for Suspilne within the limits that will allow to bring the salaries as close as possible to those on the market and to cover the expenses necessary for the broadcaster's stable functioning would be a call for the preservation of an institution that plays a key role in safeguarding democracy itself," the statement reads.
The non-governmental organizations call on the Ministry of Finance and the Parliament to support funding to Suspilne that follows the formula of 0.2% budget expenditures minus the defense expenditures (that is, 0.09% of the 2024 state budget expenditures), which amounts to about UAH 2.8 billion.
"This is less than half of the funding guaranteed by law. Such an amount will not allow development, but it will allow the company to function stably, to produce content, in particular involving market players, to pay decent salaries to their employees and to ensure the fulfillment of the tasks provided for by law," the address reads.
The address was signed by: Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, "Souspilnist" Foundation, the Ukrainian Institute for Media and Communications, NGO "Detector Media", NGO Institute for Regional Press Development, NGO "Institute of Mass Information", NGO "Internews-Ukraine", the Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy.
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