The EBU Partnership Programme has launched a taskforce in Ukraine to prepare the merger of the state national television and radio companies within a new public service broadcaster.

Supported by the Council of Europe, senior EBU consultant Boris Bergant, former Vice-President of the EBU, and David Lewis, Head of Member Relations, addressed a workshop in Kyiv at the invitation of Zurab Alasania, Director General of National Television of Ukraine (NTU).

The workshop drew about 20 key staff from NTU, the national radio company NRCU, the national state and radio company Kultura and the UkrTeleFilm Studio which are due to be merged with 25 regional state broadcasters as the Public Service Broadcaster of Ukraine (PSBU) by 1 January 2015 following adoption of a new media law in April.

Mr Bergant set out the essential steps in developing a strategic plan for the new broadcaster. These included the definition of a vision and mission, strategic goals, programme and functional strategies, and internal organization. Mr Lewis made a presentation on the EBU and core public service values,

Over the coming weeks, the workshop participants will work in small groups as a taskforce on the various elements. The Partnership Programme will then stand ready to send in a strategic team to assist the senior management in developing a full strategic plan.

One of the most difficult tasks of PSBU will be to integrate the 25 regional state broadcasters, which currently report directly to Ukraine’s state media committee and have no links to the national TV and radio broadcasters. As part of their mission on 24 and 25 July, Mr Bergant and Mr Lewis visited the regional state broadcaster in Zhytomyr county, which has 231 staff headed by director general Vasyl Golovetskyi.

The visit to Kyiv and Zhytomyr was part of a programme of assistance to NTU and NRCU, the EBU’s two Members in Ukraine, pledged by EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre during two visits to Kyiv earlier this year.

Victoria Romanova, NTU’s deputy director general, thanked the EBU for its “enormous support, assistance and motivation”, describing the latest visit as “priceless”.

At a 1 July conference organized by the EBU and the Council of Europe in Kyiv on the transition from state to public service media, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine had a “huge need” to establish public service media, not least because his country needs “truthful and correct information” at a time of war.