Parliamentary profile committee supports draft law on public broadcasting

On 15 December a majority of the members of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information supported Draft Law № 7241  “On amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the System of Public Television and Radio Broadcasting” (new version), tabled by National Deputies Andriy Shevchenko, Vladislav Kaskiv and Yevhen Suslov.

Andriy Shevchenko [BYuT] presented the draft bill. He pointed out, for example, that the authors were proposing that the public broadcaster should reject advertising. “The draft envisages public funding of 0.05%, a supervisory council of 15 members, 9 of whom are representatives of parliament, while the rest are from civic organizations. Important decisions, such as adoption of editorial policy or charter, the election of a head, will be passed by a minimum of 10 votes”.

Member of the Committee, Olena Bondarenko [Party of the Regions] spoke in favour of mixed public and subscriber funding and also has reservations regarding the proposed mechanism for creating a supervisory council. “I know that at present a draft law on public broadcasting is being prepared by the President’s Administration and I will therefore abstain from voting for this draft”.

Of those present five voted for the bill and three abstained. The Committee recommends that parliament adopt Draft Law № 7241  as base.

Deputy Head of the President’s Administration, Anna Herman has stated that the draft law “On a National Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Ukraine” is complete and has been passed to the Head of the President’s Administration.