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To the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy
To the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk
To the head of the “Sluga Narodu” parliamentary faction David Arakhamia
To the Chairman of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Mykyta Poturayev
To the Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech Yaroslav Yurchyshyn
To the Embassies of Ukraine's partner countries
STATEMENT
regarding pressure on Public Broadcasting
STATEMENT
regarding pressure on Public Broadcasting
We, Ukrainian journalists, media and media organizations, the members of the Media Movement (Mediarukh), call to stop the pressure on Suspilne – National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, to preserve Suspilne’s evening primes in the TV-marathon, to respond to the false statements of MP Bezuhla and to allocate a sufficient budget for the broadcaster for 2025. We also call on democratic countries to increase attention to preserving freedom of speech in Ukraine as a pillar of democracy and Suspilne as a flagship of media reforms in Ukraine.
Over the past week, a series of informational and institutional attacks on Public Broadcasting have taken place in the public space:
- MP, member of the “Sluga Narodu” faction Mariana Bezuhla spread false information on social media about the status of the broadcaster, its budget, and the alleged "remuneration" of the supervisory board members, who have actually been working for free since the establishment of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine;
- The idea of depriving Public Broadcasting of evening prime time, which has the largest audience reach. This idea is promoted among the channels producing the TV-marathon. As of today, evening prime time is produced by each broadcaster producing the TV-marathon in turn;
- The Ministry of Finance has informed Suspilne about the funding level for 2025: 1.5 billion. This amount is 350 million UAH less than the broadcaster's budget for 2024 and more than 75% less than the amount guaranteed by the Law “On Public Media”. This will put the broadcaster on the brink of survival.
We believe that the coincidence of these events is not accidental, and we express our strong support for Public Broadcasting, which is an example of one of the most successful reforms implemented after the Revolution of Dignity. This is confirmed by numerous monitoring reports and testimonies of both Ukrainian and international organizations. This is also noted by the broadcaster's audience itself, whose trust in the broadcaster increased from 60.5% in 2020 to 86% in 2023.
During martial law, monitoring of compliance with journalistic standards in the "United News" marathon also shows that among all broadcasters, Suspilne is the most balanced in giving the floor to representatives of political factions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Thus, during the war, Public Broadcasting properly fulfills its role of informing the public about events of significant public interest.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that Suspilne operates under severe underfunding, while the state spares no expense in creating new TV channels and radio stations. Contrary to the law, not even once – since its establishment in 2017 – Suspilne received the amount of funds equal to the guaranteed funding rate ( 0.2% of the total state budget expenditures of the previous year).
The standards of institutional work of Public Broadcasting are determined by the Council of Europe and include independence in top management appointments, non-interference in editorial policy and guarantees of proper funding. According to Part 2 of Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On Public Media”, it is prohibited for state authorities and local self-government bodies, their officials and employees, as well as non-governmental organizations, to interfere with Suspilne's activities to establish censorship, prior control and illegal influence on the content of information disseminated by Suspilne.
The Media Movement draws the attention of MPs, government officials, and representatives of commercial media companies and productions to the fact that any pressure on the broadcaster is unacceptable. This includes pressure on editorial policy, financial pressure, and the dissemination of unverified or false information.
The media movement is calling:
President of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, and Committee on Freedom of Speech – to make efforts to preserve the evening primes of the United News telethon for Public Broadcasting;
Parliamentary faction “Sluga Narodu” – to respond to the false statements of MP Mariana Bezuhla;
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine – to adhere to the norms on the level of funding for Public Broadcasting, and in a situation when it is impossible to provide one hundred percent funding, to hold consultations with the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine to determine the level of expenditures for 2025 that will allow supporting the vital activity of Public Broadcasting;
Embassies of Ukraine's partner countries – to increase attention to preserving freedom of speech in Ukraine as a pillar of democracy and the public broadcaster as a flagship of media reforms in Ukraine.
For reference. Mediarukh (Media Movement) is a community that brings together journalists from leading Ukrainian media, investigative journalists, and experts from media NGOs. In total, more than 100 organizations and individual journalists have joined the Media Movement. The Media Movement was launched on February 5, 2019. The first signatories of the Media Movement memorandum were the First Channel of the Public Broadcasting Company, Ukrainian Radio, Hromadske Radio, Ukrinform news agency, Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Liga.net, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, NV, Censor.net, Channel 5, Opinion, a number of regional media, NGOs Independent Media Council, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Souspilnist Foundation, National Association of Media, Donetsk Institute of Information, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, Zmina Human Rights Center. Later, other organizations and individual journalists joined. On November 16, 2021, representatives of leading media outlets called on journalists to unite in the professional community Mediarukh to counter political and commercial pressure on freedom of speech. The statement was initiated by 29 journalists and experts, their names are available here.
