Author: Svitlana Ostapa
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The level of public trust in Suspilne’s news exceeds 80%. This is excellent news, especially against the backdrop of declining trust in many institutions in Ukraine. Even better news: over 20% of Ukrainians consider Suspilne their favorite news source.
On January 19, Suspilne celebrates its birthday. The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine turns eight years old. The reform of Suspilne began long before the company was established and is still ongoing. While it’s possible to formally consolidate nearly 30 state organizations into one joint-stock company within a few years, transforming state-controlled broadcasting into public broadcasting clearly takes more time. This is a more fundamental change.
Suspilne is a joint-stock company with corporate governance. However, we are a joint-stock company with unique features that other JSCs lack. Specifically, our mission is not to generate profit but to defend freedoms in Ukraine, provide society with reliable and balanced information about Ukraine and the world, foster public dialogue to strengthen societal trust, and foster the development of civic responsibility, the Ukrainian language and culture, individuals, and the Ukrainian nation.
When students ask me what differentiates public broadcasting from state or commercial broadcasters, my short answer is: “Suspilne is a company that is editorially, personnel-wise, and financially independent. But we still have to work on its financial independence, as there is always someone wanting to micromanage the state budget or punish us through underfunding.” As an example, I point to the results of monitoring the national TV marathon. Only Suspilne maintains a balance of political forces. With our withdrawal from the United News telethon, no other media outlet remains there to present parliamentary political forces in a balanced manner.
Survey results show that Suspilne is gaining more supporters. I have to disappoint those who dismiss us as insignificant and repeat the mantra about our “low TV ratings.” You can keep insisting that Suspilne is just one TV channel, but the reality won’t change. Global trends show declining television viewership and growing consumption of information through digital platforms. Suspilne is a large media corporation whose content is accessible across Ukraine via radio, television, and digital platforms.
To reiterate: it is entirely incorrect to measure Suspilne’s audience solely by the ratings of one TV channel (not to mention that the low ratings were inherited from state broadcasters). That said, we have managed, for example, to quadruple the audience share of Suspilne Kultura over the past three years. Moreover, experts understand well that it’s impossible to boost a channel’s ratings without investing in costly projects. Over eight years, we have not once (NOT ONCE!) received the full budget mandated by law. Given the ongoing war, we are not even asking for it. For 2025, we have been allocated an incomplete but sufficient budget to continue the reform. I should also note that we return several hundred million hryvnias to the state budget in the form of taxes.
I won’t deny it — ratings and subscriber numbers are important to us. But the most critical metric is trust. The latest study on news consumption and trust, commissioned by Suspilne and conducted by the Gradus company in November 2024 (via self-administered surveys on the Gradus mobile app, with a sample size of 2,600 residents of Ukraine aged 18 and over, excluding temporarily occupied territories and Crimea), confirmed that consumer trust in our news exceeds 80%. This is excellent news, especially in light of the widespread decline in trust in many Ukrainian institutions. Trust is the most important indicator of success: if we are trusted, it means we are doing everything right.
Even better news from the study is that over 20% of Ukrainians consider Suspilne their favorite news source.
And one more thing: more than a third of Ukrainians regularly turn to our news. The number of people who do so continues to grow despite the overall decline in news consumption. I hope that in 2025, we will see an increase in the number of people who interact with our content meaningfully.
Here are some more results. According to the annual nationwide survey by USAID-Internews, “Ukrainian Media, Use and Trust in 2024,” published by the international organization Internews Network, the level of news consumption on Suspilne’s platforms in 2024 increased compared to 2023.
Our impartiality and commitment to professional standards are also recognized in the European Union. The European Commission presented its 2024 EU Enlargement Package report, which highlighted Suspilne’s political neutrality and the necessity of adequate funding for the broadcaster in 2025. The report noted that Suspilne “operates in a politically neutral way,” and its Supervisory Board is “is an independent body that includes representatives from civil society and media experts.”
Here’s an example of our contribution to international broadcasting. Our global citation rate has increased. In 2024, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) used nearly 2,000 Suspilne publications for major European public broadcasters — three times more than in 2022. For instance, coverage of the Kharkiv shelling on May 10 was aired on 76 channels more than 930 times. This refutes claims about global fatigue with Ukrainian news.
In November last year, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) updated its “White List” of media for the second half of 2024, in which Suspilne Novyny (Suspilne News) remains a constant presence. This confirms that standards and values are not mere words for us.
Incidentally, last year, Suspilne initiated the development of a professional standard for the journalism occupation. I believe many media outlets will thank us for this.
On December 5, during the 93rd General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union in Lausanne, Switzerland, Suspilne’s Head of the Managing Board, Mykola Chernotytskyi, was elected to the EBU Executive Board for the third time. Several of our colleagues are also members of EBU committees. This is a recognition of our work.
In December, at the International Anti-Corruption Day: From Euromaidan to European Integration Forum, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) honored the anti-corruption practices of the JSC National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. We are honored to receive this distinction.
Some of Public Broadcasting’s Achievements in 2024
For several years now, Suspilne has held a special awards ceremony called the “Suspilne Code” (Public Code) on its anniversary to recognize the best employees across various nominations. Employees are the ones who choose the best among themselves. That is why this is such a valuable award for my colleagues. The only in-person ceremony took place in January 2022 at the Ukrainian Radio Recording House. For the past three years, it has been held online.
The most emotional moment of this year’s ceremony was remembering our colleagues who lost their lives in the Russo-Ukrainian war — Oleksii Olkhovyk, Dmytro Siryk, and Iryna Tsybukh, who was killed in 2024. You will always remain in our hearts. Meanwhile, we are still striving to free Vasyl Filimon from captivity, now in its third year. Currently, 122 of our employees are serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Territorial Defense Forces. Our immense gratitude goes to you and the entire Ukrainian military for enabling us to work and live in an independent Ukraine.
Over the past year, our projects and films, our people have received other important awards as well. These include state honors — many tied to the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian Radio, celebrated on November 16, 2024. And professional ones.
2024 marks the centennial of Ukrainian Radio. The centenary was marked by a gala concert at the National Opera, where Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal delivered a greeting speech. The National Bank issued a commemorative coin, Ukrposhta issued an artistic postage stamp, “New Century of Ukrainian Radio”, our Honored Academic Symphony Orchestra of Ukrainian Radio toured nine cities of Ukraine, and Suspilne made a wonderful documentary dedicated to our radio.
We have several special projects that are becoming increasingly popular every year. One of them is the Radio Dictation, which was listened to and watched by more than 700,000 people last year. By the way, writer Oksana Zabuzhko wrote the text for it.
Another project is Eurovision. Last year, Suspilne received nearly 400 applications for the National Selection. We even received applications from abroad - from Sweden, Germany, Poland, the United States, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This year’s Ukrainian broadcast of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was supplemented with sign language interpretation for the first time. Suspilne also continues the practice of voting in Diia for the National Selection 2025 jury or for the participants, and this cooperation with Diia has solved a lot of problems for us.
Last year, Suspilne adequately handled the coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics, receiving record-breaking viewership of both broadcasts and studio programs, as well as record-breaking viewership on the Suspilne Sport website as well as on YouTube. We have significantly updated our approach to covering the games, adapting it to the risks of blackouts. In fact, we now have much more sports coverage.
We also did a good job covering the US presidential election, where two of our teams worked.
Last year, for the first time, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave an interview to Suspilne, as did the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, and the Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.
Of course, the war and events at the frontline were the top priority for the journalists at Suspilne in 2024. Informational broadcasting has been and will be a priority for Suspilne, and for this purpose, we are developing a national correspondent network. Taras Ibrahimov, Anastasiya Ivantsiv, Oleksandr Mahula (Kyiv), Viacheslav Mavrychev, Oleksandra Novosel (Kharkiv), Andriy Kramchenkov, Vladyslav Ukolov (Donbas), Valentyna Hurova (Mykolaiv) and others who were forced by the war to become military correspondents. A few years ago, we did not have a single such correspondent.
Does Suspilne use AI? Yes, the Suspilne team uses artificial intelligence programs for translation, to optimize processes that free up journalists’ resources, but definitely not to create news content.
Another piece of good news: our correspondent Valeriya Pashko will spend six months working in Brussels as part of the “Maison du Médialab: Journalists from Eastern Europe” program.
The highlight of 2024 was the launch of the Suspilne Mediateka website. Our archives contain hundreds of thousands of hours of recordings documenting our history. For more than a year, the broadcaster has been sharing digitized materials on this open platform of archival audio and video. Over the course of 12 months, the platform has been visited by 80,000 users. By late November 2024, more than 1,350 hours of video and audio content had been published on Suspilne Mediateka. Japan has been instrumental in helping us digitize these materials. Archival footage on Suspilne’s digital platforms has garnered nearly 4 million views.
The most-viewed materials published on the Suspilne Mediateka website include: “Nazariy Yaremchuk in Vyzhnytsia,” “Okean Elzy — First Televised Concert, Part Two,” and others.
Since 2014, Suspilne’s archives have been enriched with new materials documenting events at the frontline, Russian war crimes, and the stories of volunteers and veterans. The Mediateka includes a dedicated “War” section that houses such materials, most of which consist of raw video footage that could serve as evidence in the investigation of war crimes.
In 2024, Suspilne signed its first co-production agreement with the British company Worldmark Films and began joint production of the film “Sunflowers”. This is a movie about the determination, resilience, and extraordinary efforts that Ukrainian track and field athletes have to make to achieve their goals. Additionally, for the first time, a co-production art competition was held, and winners were selected, with several co-production agreements to be signed. All of this has been made possible thanks to amendments to the Law “On Media.”
Suspilne produces its own films, as well as commissioned works, but only those that align with its mission. Notable projects from Suspilne’s regional information network in 2024 include: “Stolen Sea” (Suspilne. Dnipro), a documentary on water supply issues for communities following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam; “Odesa Is Not a Russian City” (Suspilne. Odesa), covering key events in the city’s history; “Our People” (Suspilne. Odesa), interviews with artists; “The Battle for Bashtanka” (Suspilne. Mykolaiv), recounting the defense of the city in February–March 2022; “The Principality of Chernihiv. 1,000 Years” (Suspilne. Chernihiv), a historical project presented as an animated anti-lecture dedicated to the millennium of the Principality of Chernihiv; and others.
Here are several projects and reports from the past year that reached over a million views:
“Sikorskyi Addressed Nebenzya | What Were Soviet Soldiers Doing in Poland?”;
“We May Die Here, But We Took More Russians With Us” — a report from trenches near Bakhmut”;
I cannot list all the projects and films produced by Suspilne last year — there are too many. However, I will name a few I recommend watching:
“Budapest. A Bomb Under Independence,” a film by Yuriy Makarov, was presented to faculty and students of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology at the University of Granada (Spain).
“A Sentimental Journey to the Parajanov Planet” by director Taras Tomenko, produced by Illienko Film Productions LLC and commissioned by Suspilne. This film was showcased at the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. This prestigious film event is one of the main ones in the Central and Eastern Europe region and has been included in the A-list of world festivals according to the FIAPF classification since 2014.
“O. Dovzhenko. The Great Compromise,” created to mark Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s 130th anniversary, was produced by the creative team Babylon’13 for Suspilne.
“What If Chornovil. The Better Scenario for Ukraine” by Oleksandr Zinchenko.
“Gaspada Aficery,” (Gentlemen Officers), where our investigative journalists continue exposing the crimes of aggressors. They identified Russians who tortured people in Kherson, leading the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office to charge the leadership of the “temporary Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kherson region” and overseers of a torture site established by Russian invaders in a temporary detention center in Kherson in March 2022.
If you have time, watch the series “Knights of Human Rights,” about the activities of human rights organizations in Ukraine, created by Fresh Production Group at Suspilne’s request. In 2024, Suspilne also launched a special award for human rights defenders under the same title, “Knights of Human Rights.”
I also recommend the project “Removska Interview,” which has been running on Suspilne for over a year. These are rather in-depth conversations with decision-makers and opinion leaders. Another must-watch is “Founding Fathers” by Nataliya Sokolenko and Serhiy Stukanov. A real feast for the mind.
Our films were shown abroad several times in 2024 at significant events. For instance, an episode from Suspilne’s series “The Great Russian Lie” was presented at the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg (France), and the documentary “Isolation” was shown in Chile. The latter has already received several prestigious awards.
Let me remind you that Suspilne is the only media outlet in Ukraine producing projects in Ukrainian about ethnic communities and indigenous peoples of Ukraine, as well as in the languages of these communities, which are an integral part of the Ukrainian nation. Over the past year, several important films have been created: “Military Chaplains. Pray in Hell,” which won an award at a festival in London; “Yona. Hungry Delirium”; the “Names” series, where the main characters are representatives of ethnic communities. Notably, Suspilne is currently finalizing the concept for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
I am especially pleased with our projects for children and teenagers. The YouTube channel “Brobaks” now has over 106,000 subscribers and more than 38 million views of children’s content. BroBaks released the first four episodes of the animated series “Portal of Adventures” with sign language translation. The project “Collider,” just one year old, received an award in the fall at the 4th International TV Festival Heart of Europe in Warsaw. Additionally, colleagues launched the news program “So What?” for children aged 10–13, a project designed to lay the foundation for critical thinking from an early age.
And one more surprise under the New Year’s tree: British actor and author Stephen Fry narrated one of our “Brave Tales,” “A Miracle in the Dark,” in English on a podcast aired by the BBC.
Even during the full-scale war, concerts of the National Television and Radio Project “I Am a Virtuoso!” continue at the Ukrainian Radio Recording House, featuring child prodigies from all over Ukraine.
Suspilne strives to be a reliable informational partner. In 2024 alone, 121 informational partnership agreements were signed. These include the VII Creative Ukraine International Forum, Book Arsenal, the George Gongadze and Vasyl Stus Awards, the Molodist and Docudays UA film festivals, the All-Ukrainian Media Literacy Lesson by Filter, and more. Additionally, many bookstores and museums invited Suspilne to present its projects at their venues.
We are expanding our efforts in distributing Suspilne’s content rights to other media companies. Revenue from rights sales in 2024 doubled compared to 2023, with the Sweet.TV platform becoming the first OTT operator to acquire a package of Suspilne’s documentary content. Broadcasters from Poland, Switzerland, and other countries also purchased Suspilne’s documentary projects.
The year 2025 holds many challenges for Ukraine. The war continues. We will do everything possible to persevere. We will support Ukraine’s EU accession. Let me remind you that a strong, independent public broadcaster is a crucial indicator of Ukraine’s European integration.
Photos and illustrations courtesy of Svitlana Ostapa and Suspilne.
