Zurab Alasania leaves the post of National Television and Radio Broadcasting Company director general

Director General of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Ukraine Zurab Alasania has written a letter of resignation.

Alasania confirmed this to several Ukrainian media outlets.

Alasania thanked all the media activists and experts whom he worked with in the process of transformation of the public broadcasting.

According to him, the institute of the public broadcasting was started to be created in Ukraine in almost the most difficult times in its history, and the number of challenges is so high that the civil society in the broadest sense remained indifferent to the idea of public broadcasting. It means the idea was not highly ranked in the political elite, and has not received a strong initial momentum, necessary for the successful launch of the institute.

“I do not agree with the fact that public broadcasting, which should appear the next year, will be significantly underfunded. In accordance with the law on public broadcasting, there should be 0.2% of the state budget, i.e. about UAH 1.2 billion. Of these funds, the state takes away UAH 450 million for Eurovision 2017. Some UAH 250 million is taken in the form of the fee for broadcasting, UAH 149 million as expenses and UAH 46 million is taken by the city for utility services. Some UAH 112 million will go for international activities (Olympics, world cups and other contests) and the company has UAH 193 million left,” Zurab Alasania said in a commentary to Public Broadcasting website.

Alasania also explained the reasons for his resignation on mediaport.ua website.

“The country needs a public broadcaster as clean air in the industry-poisoned environment. Nevertheless, society’s expectations for the timing are not real: being inside, you realize that the reform will take much more time if not to violate the laws, but to change with the laws,” Alasania said.