Oksana Romanyuk elected member of Ukraine public broadcaster’s supervisory board

Oksana Romaniuk, Executive Director of the Institute of Mass Information, was elected a member of the Supervisory Board of the National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC) from non-governmental organizations in the matter of journalism, as “Public. Detector Media” reported.

She scored the most points (61) in a secret ballot on October 13.

The new member is to replace Tetyana Lebedeva, who was elected to the supervisory board in the matter of journalism and who had resigned on her own free will in December 2019.

Oksana Romanyuk is the executive director of the Institute of Mass Information, she has been in journalism for over 20 years. During her presentation at the conference, she said that one of her priorities was to raise the prestige of the Public Broadcaster, to foster the growth of trust and to explain the essence of its reform. 

According to Oksana Romaniuk, her priorities include promoting the online development of the Public Broadcaster, regulating the situation with the reduction of NSTU staff in the regions, strengthening international cooperation, promoting NPTU transparency and strengthening critical thinking among the population, including the countering fake news.

A total of 18 NGOs nominated their candidates for the supervisory board. Two representatives from the organizations were unable to attend the conference. As a result, 16 organizations elected a future member of the supervisory board of the National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine through a secret rating vote from among six candidates.

Oksana Romaniuk was a candidate from eight associations, including the Ukrainian Media Association of Press Publishers, Internews-Ukraine NGO, the Institute of Political Information NGO, the Philip Orlyk Institute for Democracy, and the Institute of Mass Information NGO, Suspilnist Foundation NGO, "NAM” Association (National media association), NGO "National Media Association".

Oleg Dzholos was nominated as a candidate from the "Donetsk Press Club" NGO, Diana Dutsyk was nominated from the NGO "Human Rights Platform", Ruslan Kukharchuk was nominated from the NGO "Association of Journalists, Publishers and Speakers" Novomedia ", Oksana Maksymenyuk was nominated from the NGO"Regional Press Development Institute " , Halyna Petrenko - from the NGO “Media Detector”.

Other representatives of the associations withdrew their candidacies.

At the beginning of the conference, Svitlana Ostapa, Chairman of the NPTU Supervisory Board, made an introductory speech. She stressed the importance of the ongoing reform of the Public Broadcaster. After that, the candidates presented their programs.

As a result of voting, Oksana Romanyuk got 61 points, Diana Dutsyk got 35 points, Halyna Petrenko got 32 points, Ruslan Kukharchuk got 33 points, Oksana Maksymenyuk got 35 points.

We will remind, on October 16 at the conferences the members of supervisory board of NPTU responsible for two other spheres should be elected to substitute vacant positions after dismissal of Victor Taran (responsible for local government) and Volodymyr Brynzak (responsible for physical education and sports).

On December 17, 2015, the National Council approved the composition of the Supervisory Board of the National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine . It consisted of 17 persons, nine of whom are members of the public sector and were elected through an open and fair competition, and eight were delegated by parliamentary factions, but are not MPs themselves. 

From 2015 to 2020, some members of the NPTU Supervisory Board resigned on their own free will. 

No one from the parliamentary factions was delegated to replace three former members of the NPTU Supervisory Board, Vitaliy Portnikov , Igor Khokhych and Vyacheslav Kozak .

From now on, the Supervisory Board of the Public Broadcaster has 12 members. From public associations there are Yevhen Hlibovytsky (responsible for creative sphere), Dayia Karyakina (responsible for respect of the rights of ethnic minorities), Vadym Misky (responsible for protection of the interests of children and youth), Oleksiy Panych (responsible for education and science), Natalia Skrypka (responsible for protection of the rights of persons with special needs), Oleksandr Pavlichenko (responsible for human rights), Oksana Romanyuk (responsible for journalism matters).

On behalf of the parliamentary factions and groups, the members of the NPTU Supervisory Board are Lavrentiy Malazonia (parliamentary faction of the Opposition Bloc political party), Svitlana Ostapa (parliamentary faction of the Samopomich Association political party), Volodymyr Yavorivsky (parliamentary faction of the All-Ukrainian political party Batkivshchyna), Kateryna Dulapchiy (People's Will parliamentary group) and Oksana Mironova (Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction).