How to make the Public Broadcasting truly independent and to maintain high standards of journalism and why it is important – such issues were discussed today during an international conference entitled ‘Independence of Public Broadcasting Governance – the Key to Successful Reform’. Also during the event the concepts of the development of the Public Broadcasting, its structure, program policies, accountability and transparency of the Public Broadcasting Company were discussed. The event was organized by CEDEM and the Council of Europe Office.

All the candidates for the position of the Chairman of the Board of NSTU PJSC, representatives of international organizations and ambassadors of the countries, as well as senior officials, independent experts and representatives of civil society took part in the conference. Also, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of NSTU Tetiana Lebedeva and a member of the Supervisory Board Svitlana Ostapa presented the reports, which told about the steps already taken on the reform of the Public Broadcasting and the basis for its future development.

 In the course of the discussion, Ihor Rozkladay, a lawyer at CEDEM, emphasized the changes that will take place in regional broadcasters

“Why do we create a united broadcaster and ensure its independence in the regions? Because we understand that regional journalism is not protected. In order for journalists to be independent, they must be secured from authorities. ODTRK has always been dependent on the authorities and was afraid to criticize the leaders of the regional level. We turn regional broadcasters into a single structure, so that everyone is protected and not regulated by authorities` wants and wishes”, he believes.

The expert emphasized the fact that public service broadcasting would be less focused on entertainment, but his/her task was to develop the country and support democracy.

Upon completion of the discussion, the submission of proposals of candidates was also held. In his course, all 8 candidates for the position of the head of the Public told about their strategy and answered the question (you can find more – in the second part of the material).

The full version of the material is available in Ukrainian: https://cedem.org.ua/news/suspilne-yak-stvoryty-nezalezhnogo-movnyka-chastyna-i/