Public broadcaster Suspilne leaves telethon, expanding its own broadcasting
Public broadcaster Suspilne decided to start its own broadcasting on the First Channel, calling this measure an expansion of its own broadcasting in the United News telethon, although media analysts see it as the channel's actual withdrawal from the telethon.
Corresponding changes in the Memorandum on the activities of the telethon have been signed by all its producers, reads the message of Suspilne.
Starting at 3:00 p.m. on May 21, Suspilne will complement the information block of the telethon on the First Channel with additional news content, documentaries of its own production and investigations, although it will continue to exchange content with all participants of the telethon.
The media watchdog Detector Media called such a move by Suspilne a withdrawal from the telethon.
Svitlana Ostapa, the head of the supervisory board of Public Broadcasting, considers this a "civilized divorce", which was achieved as part of the expansion of content production.
"We have received written guarantees from the National Security and Defense Council that such actions will not violate the Security Council's decision. The team of Suspilne is ready to resume round-the-clock broadcasting on the First Channel. I hope everything will work out for us," Ostapa said in a comment to Detector Media.
Pressure on Suspilne
In mid-April, MP Maryana Bezuhla started an information campaign against Suspilne. At the same time, the unofficial coordinator of the telethon, Vladyslav Matyash, reported in the chat of the producers of United News that "the majority of channels" allegedly voted for Suspilne to no longer receive evening slots in the marathon.
The European Broadcasting Union, the Committee on Ukraine's EU Integration of the Verkhovna Rada, Mediarukh, the Public Council under the Committee for Freedom of Speech spoke out in defense of Suspilne.
The chairman of the board of the broadcaster, Mykola Chernotytskyi, stated that Suspilne is ready for two options for the development of events: stopping the pressure on the broadcaster and maintaining participation in the telethon, or withdrawing from the telethon and expanding its own broadcasting on the First Channel.
What about the telethon?
More than 1.5 billion hryvnias ($37.8 million) will be allocated from the state budget to the telethon and foreign broadcasting of Ukraine in 2024.
At the same time, the survey results of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) showed that trust in the United News telethon continues to decline.
In April, the chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech of the Verkhovna Rada, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, announced that the telethon will have to end if it does not change its format in 2024.
The international human rights organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) called on the Ukrainian authorities to review the format of the telethon, calling it ineffective.