{"id":8646,"date":"2024-04-29T15:21:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T12:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cje.org.ua\/?post_type=news&p=8646"},"modified":"2024-04-29T15:21:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T12:21:09","slug":"statement-of-the-commission-on-journalistic-ethics-regarding-the-due-role-of-public-broadcasting-suspilne-during-the-war","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/cje.org.ua\/en\/news\/statement-of-the-commission-on-journalistic-ethics-regarding-the-due-role-of-public-broadcasting-suspilne-during-the-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics Regarding the Due Role of Public Broadcasting (Suspilne) During the War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the past week, there has been an increase in attacks in the public discourse against the Public Broadcaster by certain MPs<\/a>, followed by information about the intention to remove Suspilne from the prime time of the United News telethon<\/a>. In light of this information, the Commission reiterates its support for the reform of the public broadcasting, which represents an exemplary media reform in Ukraine during its independence. Following the reform, a cumbersome state-owned giant with regional offices that often became mouthpieces for the authorities transformed into a competitive media company that adheres to journalistic ethics standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We remind you that the demand to carry out this reform was mentioned back in 2005 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe<\/a>, and its purpose was to improve the environment for pluralist democracy. Civil society consistently worked on the reform both on the legislative and executive levels since 2014\u20132015, when the Law of Ukraine \u201cOn Public Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine<\/a> (now \u2014 \u201cOn Public Media of Ukraine) was adopted. The guarantees of institutional, financial, and editorial independence of the public broadcaster were enshrined in this very law in line with the CoE standards, which were in turn reflected in the European Media Freedom Act<\/a> at the EU level in 2024. Despite the independent elections of Suspilne management both in 2017 and in 2021, as well as its inclusion in various \u201cwhite lists\u201d<\/a> of media that adhere to journalistic standards, the allocation of the 0.2% of budget spending on the media did not take place even once since all the local companies transformed and merged into a single PAT National Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the full-scale invasion, trust in Suspilne increased from 60.5% in 2020<\/a> to 86% in 2023<\/a>. After the United News telethon was set up, monitoring of compliance with standards regularly shows that Suspilne that has the lowest number of violations<\/a> and provides the most balanced space for all political factions in the Parliament<\/a> among all the broadcasters that make up the telethon. Thus, despite inadequate funding and the overall attempts of the government to consolidate its information capacity \u2014 not least due to information warfare and the need to fend off enemy propaganda \u2014 Suspilne remains a place for quality content that consumers trust and use when it comes to obtaining high-quality information as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In view of the fact that the public media continue to fulfill their task of informing the public about current events of significant public interest, the Commission expresses its unequivocal support for the reformed broadcaster and stresses that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n