The International Conference “Independent governing bodies of Public broadcaster – key prerequisite for the successful reform” will take place on 07 April 2017, aimed at public presentation of the concepts of the Public broadcaster’s development, as well as the structure, programme policy, accountability and transparency of the Public broadcaster in Ukraine.

Establishment of the Public broadcasting is an important step towards strengthening of the democracy in Ukraine as well as strengthening of the freedom of media in particular. Joint efforts of the civil society and national authorities resulted in the registration on 19 January 2017 of the legal entity of the Public broadcasting – Public Joint-Stock Company “National Television and Radio broadcasting Company of Ukraine” (PJSC NPBU). One of the primary actions of the Supervisory Board of the PJSC NPBU was the announcement of the competition for the position of the Head of the Management Board of the PJSC NPBU. 8 candidates applied for the position. Management structure, PJSC NPBU’s structure, editorial policy are described in the concepts submitted by the candidates.

The aim of the conference is to present and discuss publicly the concepts and their compliance with the ideas and principles of the Public broadcasting and with current situation of the newly created PJSC NPBU, which inherited all baggage of the state broadcasting.

All candidates for the position of the Head of the Management Board of the PJSC NPBU are invited to participate in the conference and publicly present submitted concepts.

All interested participants are kindly invited to attend:

What?	International conference “Independent governing bodies of Public broadcaster – key prerequisite for the successful reform”
When?	7 April 2017 (09:30 – 14:30)
Where?	Conference hall Embassy Suit of the Radisson Blu Hotel, situated at address: 22 Yaroslaviv Val Street Kyiv

Invited speakers: candidates for position of the Head of Management Board of the PJSC NPBU; Viktoria Siumar, Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Expression and Information Policy;  Yurii Stets, Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine; Hugues Mingarelli, Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine; Mårten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine. Boris Bergant, former Vice-President of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The Council of Europe also invited international experts to participate in the conference.

Other participants: members of the Supervisory Board of the PJSC NPBU, representatives of the international organisations and diplomatic institutions, representatives of the regional branches of the PJSC NPBU, media lawyers, journalists and civil society.

For registration, please fill in the registration form by 12.00 on 05 April 2017. The confirmation of the registration will be sent to the e-mail indicated in the registration form on 06 April 2017.

The conference is organised jointly by the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law and the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine in the framework of the Project*

*Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of the Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine” is aimed to enhance the role of media and the public broadcaster in particular as an instrument for consensus building in the Ukrainian society. The Project is implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017. In 2016 the Project is financed from the budget of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017.