News during wartime can save lives, but people also need support, a sense of unity, and stories that help them live through this time. That is why Suspilne Ukraine creates not only news content, but also children’s, sports, music, comedy, and documentary content. Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of Suspilne Ukraine, emphasized this on June 25 in his speech at the 96th General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), taking place these days in Prague, Czechia.
Mykola Chernotytskyi mentioned Brave Tales, therapeutic audio stories for children that Suspilne launched back in March 2022; historical documentary projects; the development of sports broadcasting through Suspilne Sport; new Ukrainian music on Radio Promin; stand-up shows; as well as documentary co-productions with international partners — Queens of Joy, The Illusion of a Quiet Night, and Cuba & Alaska.
Full text of Mykola Chernotytskyi’s speech:
Dear colleagues, partners, dear friends!
Thank you for this opportunity to speak today in front of the General Assembly about the importance of the public service media as a cultural institution for a democratic nation.
During the wartime in Ukraine, while we face all the possible security challenges, our most important mission is to deliver our people the news that may save lives. We bring them reports about current events that they can always trust, we help people feel more confident in the time of total uncertainty. This is full time job for our best and most talented journalist teams.
But from the early days of russian invasion we realized that people need some warmth and feeling of being not alone even in dire circumstances, where they have limited access to the media and communications, the most vulnerable ones first. This was the start of the journey of our non-news wartime content, from audio tales on digital channels turned books, to sports, music and stand-up shows, and now to the award-winning documentaries in co-production with our valued partners.
Brave Tales were launched in March 2022. Audio tales were therapeutic stories of the shared experience of Ukrainian families, which truthfully but delicately explained to children new realities, but with happy endings. Stories about friendship, about parents who went to war but love and miss their children, tales of support and volunteering. Tales of free people and their heroes. Thanks to Stephen Fry, you can listen to one of those — The Miracle in the Dark — on the BBC Sounds and hear his opinion on the project.
The first 12 stories were later published as a book. Now we have hundreds of episodes published on YouTube and our own app, and we don’t stop.
We went from rebroadcasting classic movies and series for the elder female audiences to history documentaries. This was an important step to give our audiences a better idea of historical context and Ukrainian path through the times of empires and occupations. We have increased our output of historical content several times these years.
One of the prominent journalists from France Television told us in Kyiv in 2023 that she was impressed a lot about how much people smiled and laughed in the worst imaginable conditions, on the frontlines and in the shelters, without electricity or heating, but trying to keep the spirits high. Suspilne started producing stand-up shows to give a platform to those who gave hope and funny moments of unity around current situations, produce jokes that would be relevant and well-received. Now we have a whole new generation of young stand-up comics touring Ukraine and the world gathering millions and millions of donations for our defenders, veterans and IDPs.
We launched linear sports TV channel on top of existing digital platforms. The idea was to unite the nation around TV screens for every Ukrainian victory, not only on the battlefield. We let our viewers see more Ukrainian athletes performing locally and internationally, so that every win will be noticed and give positive emotions to wide audiences. The athletes themselves got their reassurance that their international success is important for millions of people back home. Thanks to the cooperation with the EBU we have enough content for Suspilne Sport.
Ukrainians are united by music. On Radio Promin music station we broadcast more new Ukrainian songs weekly than ever before, while our orchestra tours the country and abroad being part of cultural diplomacy, like Ukrainian musicians did 100 years ago with what became Carol of the Bells.
Ukrainians are united by music. On Radio Promin music station we broadcast more new Ukrainian songs weekly than ever before, while our orchestra tours the country and abroad being part of cultural diplomacy, like Ukrainian musicians did 100 years ago with what became Carol of the Bells.
But what I think is the most important point for today’s meeting is telling the human stories of today’s Ukraine.
There’s no doubt we live in the historical times. Ukraine is a focal point of the dramas of the 21st century in Europe and the wider world. The reflections of Ukrainian fight for freedom will inspire artists for generations to come. It is our job as responsible media managers to not let those stories vanish. Thanks to our cooperation and coproduction with you, we can be part of the effort together with the best Ukrainian talents. Let’s watch the trailer and listen to Olha, the director of Queens of Joy:
This story is very special because it brings up human rights and equality issues, for sure, but it also shows you a lot about how Ukrainians want to live their lives. It shows you what we defend and how we try to live now when there’s no certain future for anyone.
At the Docu Days festival in Kyiv two weeks ago we premiered The Illusion of Quiet Night, where 40 professionals and hundreds of amateurs made videos of how they spent the same night in July last year in Ukraine. The film got many positive reviews, and I highly recommend you watch it. You can feel the ordinary people’s life across our big country: dancing till late, working at the hospitals, giving birth and hiding children from the drone attacks, listening to the birds and animals in between the shelling on the frontline, sleeping in subways during alerts in Kyiv, like me myself did many times.
We are happy to be partners of Cuba&Alaska together with Arte, Czech Television , RTBF VRT and many others. The story of the two female medics at the frontline of Ukraine’s war trying to hold on to fragments of the normal life they had before, hoping they can go back when the war is done. Let me show you a short trailer now:
Cuba & Alaska was a success on big screens in Ukraine and is screening in France now. I hope there’s lot more people to watch it and I’m thankful to every organization on the list that helped produce it.
We have many more ideas, more talents, always more that the available resource. As a public service media we strongly believe it is our mission to make no one forget the times of Ukrainian fight for freedom and independence. It is our mission to show the human stories of ordinary Ukrainians doing historical things to our audiences, the world and the next generations. This is where we are so thankful to have your support and cooperation. I believe we can and we will do much more together. Together we show the importance of public service media that goes far beyond delivering trustworthy news and serving current audiences here and now. Thank you!
As a reminder, Suspilne Ukraine has active representation in the governing and professional bodies of the European Broadcasting Union. Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of Suspilne Ukraine, is a member of the EBU Executive Board; Angelina Kariakina is a member of the News Committee; Viktoriia Murovana is a member of the Digital Committee; Iryna Slavinska is a member of the Radio Committee; Dmytro Khilchenko is a member of the Technical Committee; and Valeriia Bezpala is a member of the International Relations Expert Group.
Suspilne Ukraine is an independent media company with a strong presence across all platforms: the TV channels Pershyi, Suspilne Kultura, Suspilne Sport, and a national network of local channels; the radio stations Ukrainske Radio, Radio Promin, Radio Kultura, Radiotochka. Find only verified news on suspilne.media, as well as on our national and local digital platforms. We broadcast in minority languages, represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest, develop the children’s platform Brobaks, and train media professionals through the Public Media Academy. Our Suspilne Mediateka platform offers unique video and audio archives dating from the 1920s to today. Defending freedom in Ukraine.
