Three years ago, on April 17, 2014, the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law (used to be the Media Law Institute at that time), together with the newly formed Coalition ‘Reanimation Package of Reforms’, adopted the Law ‘On Public Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine’. This reform has been a priority for CEDEM upon establishment of the organization in 2005.

This draft law for the first time since 1997 has defined the framework for the creation of public service broadcasting in Ukraine. Moreover, for the first time, not only the national television and Radio Company, but also all state broadcasters, were subject to reformation.

Subsequently, the law on public service broadcasting was finalized. In December 2014, on the initiative of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the issues of Freedom of Speech, a working group was formed, which included the CEDEM lawyer Ihor Rozkladay. Its participants developed a package of amendments that were approved by the parliament within 3 months.

The Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law also supported the reform on its entire path. In particular, CEDEM held public events and expert discussions on public broadcasting, and the Center’s experts participated in the development of legislative acts and documents necessary for the reformation of the broadcaster.

In the autumn of 2015, the reform began. In particular, regional branches of the NTCU were created. However, the next stage – liquidation of legal entities of ODRTR – was delayed for the entire 2016 year. Only at the last meeting of 2016 the Government approved the charter of National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine PJSC.

The legal entity NSTU PJSC officially appeared on January 19, 2017. And on April 10, the chairman of the board of the Public was elected. He became Zurab Alasania, media manager, journalist and founder of a number of media projects.

Upon election of the Board members in May 2017, a new phase of reform begins – the structural and meaningful transformation of the public broadcaster into a new, modern multimedia platform.