During the meeting that was held in the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTCU), the people’s deputies stressed that the “parliamentary Committee intends to do everything necessary, so that the process of establishment of public television and mass media denationalization could start in January 2014”.
The Committee Chair, Mykola Tomenko, noted that the meeting aims at providing a possibility to “get more deeply acquainted with technical, investment, personnel and creative possibilities of the staff of the First National Channel in order to elaborate a common stand for all participants of the process; find out optimal ways to solve painful problems; and reach a compromise”.
The Chairman of the parliamentary Committee informed also that “today, there rumors and talks of the possibility of “quiet” privatization or alienation of land plots of television and radio companies in certain regions, due to understanding that the project of public television will be realized in the nearest future”.
NTCU Acting Director General Oleksandr Panteleimonov drew attention of those present to the problem of constant under funding, great social burden on the TV Channel budget and outdated television technique, etc.
Participants of the meeting discussed also the bill on Public Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine (Reg. No. 1076), which the Committee recommends to adopt in the repeated second reading and in entirety.
Particularly, under the document, the Cabinet of Ministers shall set up a legal entity of public law the “National Public television and Radio Company of Ukraine” (NSTU) on the basis of National Television Campaign of Ukraine, National Radio Campaign of Ukraine, State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (DTRK) “World Service “Ukrainian Television and Radio Broadcasting”, DTRK “Kultura”, regional DTRK, DTRK “Krym”, Kyiv DTRK, Sevastopol DTRK, the Ukrainian TV Films studio “Ukrtelefilm” and the Ukrainian National News Agency “Ukrinform”.
The bill determines principles of the NSTU operational policy.
The bill includes a provision under which, any interference on the part of state authorities, bodies of local self-government and their officials, as well as NGOs into the NSTU’s activity will be prohibited.
It is suggested establish that NSTU shall be financed at the cost of the State Budget of Ukraine and shall constitute not less that 0,2% of State Budget expenditures of the previous year.