Public TV and Radio financing will be halved

In distribution of expenses of the state budget of Ukraine for 2018 it was indicated that financial support for the National Public TV and radio company of Ukraine is 776 563.1 UAH. This is only half of what is required by the Law of Ukraine «On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2016 », which specifies that the budget of the National Public TV company of Ukraine should be 0.2% per cent from the total fund of the State Budget of Ukraine for the previous year. Member of the supervisory board Vadym Miskyi wrote in his Facebook entry that financing in 2018 was supposed to be at  least 1.5 billion hryvnias, but what is planned is 776 million - by 200 million less than this year. Vadym Miskyi emphasized that «this can be considered an attack against the freedom of press, as we all understand very well: the oligarchs in power do not need independent mass media. Treason and shame, nothing to add here ». For the context, on September 16, 2017, at the 14-th annual conference «Yalta European Strategy » (YES) Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groisman said that the money for supporting the Public Broadcasting in Ukraine are included in the next year's budget in full. He even said that the National Public TV and Radio broadcasting can receive some added financing. On September 15, the government approved draft law for State Budget for 2018. The Embassy of Canada in Ukraine appealed the government of Ukraine to finance the public broadcaster in full. The ambassador of Sweden in Ukraine Martin Hagström expressed his concern about insufficient financing of the newly created Public Television.