[null, {"document_url": "http://www.ukraine.netizen24.com/2018/09/ukraines-public-broadcaster-struggling.html", "unformatted_src": "https://www.dw.com/image/45663291_303.jpg", "src": "https://www.dw.com/image/45663291_303.jpg", "alt_text": "TV static (Colourbox)"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.ukraine.netizen24.com/2018/09/ukraines-public-broadcaster-struggling.html", "unformatted_src": "https://www.dw.com/image/18520366_404.jpg", "src": "https://www.dw.com/image/18520366_404.jpg", "alt_text": "Kyryl Savin of the DW Akademie (DW/F. Rohmann)"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.ukraine.netizen24.com/2018/09/ukraines-public-broadcaster-struggling.html", "unformatted_src": "https://www.dw.com/image/44703057_404.jpg", "src": "https://www.dw.com/image/44703057_404.jpg", "alt_text": "Donetsk airport sign (picture-alliance/epa/L. Piergiovanni)"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.ukraine.netizen24.com/2018/09/ukraines-public-broadcaster-struggling.html", "unformatted_src": "https://www.dw.com/image/19400892_301.jpg", "src": "https://www.dw.com/image/19400892_301.jpg", "alt_text": "\u00c3\u0096sterreich Wien Prozess Mirsad O. / Ebu Tejma"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.ukraine.netizen24.com/2018/09/ukraines-public-broadcaster-struggling.html", "unformatted_src": "https://www.dw.com/image/44719438_301.jpg", "src": "https://www.dw.com/image/44719438_301.jpg", "alt_text": "Deutschland - Urteil l Rund funkbeitrag in wesentlichen Punkten rechtm\u00c3\u00a4\u00c3\u009fig"}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.ukraine.netizen24.com/2018/09/ukraines-public-broadcaster-struggling.html", "unformatted_src": "https://www.dw.com/image/36704590_301.jpg", "src": "https://www.dw.com/image/36704590_301.jpg", "alt_text": "Frankreich Caen Oleksandr Onyshchenko"}, null, null, null, null]

Ukraine's public broadcaster struggling for state support

By Netizen 24 Worldwide On September 29, 2018


 Ukraine's media landscape is not particularly diverse. Indeed, most of country's television and radio stations are owned by businessmen with close ties to the political class. President Petro Poroshenko, for example, owns his very own news channel, although he has officially relinquished control over the station.

Now, things appear to have gotten worse: Ukraine's public television station UA:Pershyi, or UA:First in English, has had its analogue broadcasting service suspended. The official reason is outstanding debt for transmission services provided by a state-run company.

Read more: Could a rock star become Ukraine's next president?

The result is that just half a year ahead of Ukraine's presidential election, people in the countryside are cut off from public television. "It is an absurd situation," the acting director of the Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication, Diana Dutsyk, told DW. That's because, she explained, analogue broadcasting services are often the o nly option available in rural Ukraine. That the country is currently embroiled in civil war only makes the situation more unacceptable, Dutsyk added.

Western money and pressure

For decades, UA:Pershyi was part of Ukraine's state broadcasting operation. Since 2017 and with support from Germany and other outside parties, the television station is gradually being modernized and is now part of country's new public broadcasting company, UA:PBC. This rebranding was kicked-started in the winter of 2013 with the rise of Ukraine's pro-Western Europe protest movement. However, the process was dogged by setbacks as Ukraine's government initially showed little interest in the idea. Western pressure reportedly helped push the project forward. Savin heads the international effort to modernize Ukraine's public broadcaster

The European Commission has pledged â¬5 million ($6 million), and Germany's Foreign Ministry â¬1.5 million, to help Ukraine establish a modern, multimedia news station. Kyryl Savin of the DW Akademie, who runs this international initiative, says that preparations are currently underway to launch the project. "I hope construction work on the station will begin in October," he said. The station's new headquarters is set to be completed by 2020.

It will mark a major change in the country's media landscape. In the past, Ukrainian public broadcasting produced low-quality content with government-friendly overtones that reached very few viewers. Now, new television formats have been planned that emphasize investigative reporting and critical analysis.

Read more: Ukraine: "Reporting on a process affecting us all"

"The station is basically independent and autonomous from the government," said Dutsyk, though she conceded that there is still room for improvement in its political reporting.

German ambassador demands support

As Ukraine's analogue television broadcasts were gradually being switched off over the past few weeks and months, an exception was made for UA:Pershyi. The regions in eastern Ukraine bordering rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk kept receiving its analogue signal. And similarly, residents in these parts of Ukraine can receive its programs digitally or via cable. But given the problem of chronic underfunding, it is unclear how much longer that will continue. Amid funding concerns, residents in war-torn eastern Uk raine may soon lose public broadcaster access

Ukrainian law stipulates that UA:PBC should receive 0.2 percent of the previous year's state budget. However, parliament decided to only grant half of this sum for 2018, or the equivalent of â¬23 million. That amount is a major problem, according to UA:PBC financial director Rodion Nikonenko. "There is enough money to pay our employees' salaries," he explained, but not to run the station or produce any programs.

On Wednesday, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of public media outlets, called on the Ukrainian government to provide UA:PBC proper funding. "The EBU is extremely concerned about the future of public service media in Ukraine after broadcasts from EBU Member UA:PBC were terminated," the organization said in a statement.

Read more: Politics, powers, and struggle over Ukraine's Orthodox church

Germany's ambassador in Kyiv, Ernst Reichel, took to Twitter a day later, urging Ukraine to swiftly address UA:PBC's dire financial situation and guarantee funding for coming years. The country must ensure the station is "fully operational" ahead of the upcoming presidential election, he said.

Suppressing investigative journalism?

Svetlana Ostapa, who sits on the UA:PBC supervisory board, suspects the government decided to switch off analogue broadcasting for political reasons. In light of the upcoming presidential election, Ukraine's leadership is displeased with the station's investigative reporting and the fact that authorities "can no longer order it around," she said.

Denis Bihus, who hosts the station's investigative show "Nashi Hroshi" (Our Money), agrees. He said the government is deliberately withholding funds as an indirect form of "punishment."


Donetsk attack: Is peace in Eastern Ukraine doomed?

Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko to run in next year's presidential election

Could a rock star become Ukraine's next president?

Ukraine: "Reporting on a process affecting us all&quot ;

DW Akademie in Ukraine

Politics, powers, and struggle over Ukraine's Orthodox church

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople may grant Ukraine its own church, and Moscow Patriarch Kirill is not happy about it. The two dignitaries are also rivals locked in a struggle within the Orthodox world. (02.09.2018)
 Austrian Interior Ministry under fire for plans to curb media 25.09.2018

Austrian police should minimize the amount of information they share with "critical" media outlets, according to a leaked email. The ministry, controlled by the far-right FPÃ, wants more focus on suspects' nationalities. German ZDF and ARD public broadcasting household levy ruled constitutional 18.07.2018

Germany's top court has ruled a monthly fee levied on every household to fund public broadcasters is constitutional. The fee brings in â¬8 billion a year and has had its critics, and its supporters. Fugitive oligarch and equestrian patron denied German visa 18.09.2018

 
German, Turkish presidents exchange barbs during state dinner

German FM Heiko Maas calls for UN Security Council reform

Source: Google News Ukraine | Netizen 24 Ukraine
 

Fight Over Ukraine's Church Risks Dividing Orthodoxy