23 December 2010, 18:31
Mykola Tomenko: The Parliament shall discuss the Development Strategy of the First National Channel that is funded by the State Budget of Ukraine
Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, announced that the Verkhovna Rada has received numerous appeals concerning the situation on the First national channel of Ukraine. M. Tomenko stated that on the one hand, Yehor Benkendorf, the General Director, and Valid Arfush, the Deputy General Director of the National Television Company of Ukraine, continue experiments with the program policy. On the other hand, the channel is funded by the State Budget of Ukraine. As for December 9, 2010, the National Television Company of Ukraine received UAH 234 million 892,36 thousand in total, in particular UAH 37 million 056,7 thousand from the Stabilization Fund.
The Deputy Chairman stated that another peculiarity of this channel,"a public broadcasting service" as the authorities say, would be the broadcast of "Shuster Live" program.
"It is quite interesting how this program would be funded by the state channel if even the commercial channel "Ukraina" failed to do this", the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine asked.
Taking into the consideration the discussion of the status and mission of the National Television Company of Ukraine, Mykola Tomenko suggested that the Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Andrii Shevchenko should analyze the situation with the First National Channel and the prospects of its development.