Heft 275

Alexander Belyakov:

Public Service Broadcasting: An Answer to Freedom of Speech Challenges in Ukraine?,

Cologne, in November 2010, ISBN 978-3-938933-81-7

21 p., Price 5,00 €

 

The article is based on a presentation given during the conference “Public Service Broadcasting. A German-Ukrainian Exchange of Opinions” on October 20, 2010, in Cologne. The conference has been organized by the Institute for Broadcasting Economics at the University of Cologne in cooperation with the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism and financially supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Federal Foreign Office. The article constitutes an attempt to analyze the perspectives of public service broadcasting (PSB) in Ukraine in the context of the latest freedom of speech challenges. The opportunity to establish PSB has emerged after the “Orange Revolution” in 2004, but has come to life only in 2010. The optimism about independent PSB lasted for a few months in 2005, but then it disappeared. The article also presents a controversy in reporting versus repeating in journalistic work in Ukraine and the danger of this practice for PSB. The author discusses the current obstacles in the way of establishing truly independent PSB. An explanation will be provided for historical patterns, world trends, recent developments and perspectives of PSB.

Dr. Alexander Belyakov is Deputy Head of the Foundation for Local Democracy and European Integration of Yuri Panejko, Kyiv, consultant at the “Alumniportal Deutschland” in Ukraine and peer reviewer of the publications “Nations in Transit” with the “Freedom House”.

Table of Contents:

1. Public Service Broadcasting: Global and Local
2. The Mass Media in a Relationship with Power
3. Heritage for Public Service Broadcasting and Its Influence
4. Public Service Broadcasting on the Start
5. Independent, But Paid by State?
6. Conclusion