Representatives from Expertise France, a French agency for international technical cooperation, visited Suspilne Odesa. During the meeting, the Suspilne team discussed the broadcaster’s operations amid the war and the consequences of Russian attacks, and presented the Suspilne Mediateka division, its collaboration with partners, and the educational initiatives of the Public Media Academy in Odesa.
«France and Expertise France are invested in recovery and reconstruction support of Ukraine. Our support and attention is today on a different kind of frontline: Ukraine’s cultural sovereignty. By partnering with Suspilne Mediateka to safeguard these audiovisual archives, we are protecting the living memory of this region and preserving the truth , including for justice and penal affairs. Team France stands firmly with Odesa; we are not just defending infrastructure; we are helping Ukraine protect its identity and national history», said Cassilde Brenière, Deputy Managing Director of Expertise France.
Andriy Taranov, a member of the board of Suspilne Ukraine responsible for marketing, research, and international relations, thanked international partners for their support. He emphasized that the partnership with Expertise France helps Suspilne systematically develop its efforts to preserve audiovisual heritage:
“It was important to show our partners how Suspilne’s teams are working today in various regions of Ukraine. We are grateful to Expertise France for its support and attention to the details of our work. We believe that together we can do more to preserve the archives and document this period. After all, this is a part of European history that is important to preserve for future generations.”
Nazarii Maksymchuk, manager of Suspilne Odesa, explained how the team ensures the media outlet’s smooth operation and showed us the storage facility and archives.
Olena Kvasha, a producer at Suspilne Odesa, shared the organization’s best practices with the Odesa University of Modern Technologies. This partnership is specifically designed to train specialists to work with media archives and audiovisual heritage.
“We are very grateful to our friends and partners for their attention to the work of Suspilne, their support, and their visit to Odesa. We were happy to show how our Media Library works, talked on the success and challenges faced by the team. We also talked about the work of Suspilne southern hub team in wartime, as well as our educational projects on media literacy, combating disinformation, the “Time Loop” quest room, as well as other training programs of the Suspilne Media Academy,” said Olena Kvasha.
During the meeting, guests were also treated to an archival audio recording of a piece by an 18th-century French composer, performed by musicians from Odesa and recorded in the 1970s. This recording is part of the audiovisual heritage that Suspilne Ukraine is currently preserving and digitizing to make it accessible to future generations.
As a reminder, in 2025, Suspilne Ukraine signed a memorandum of cooperation with the French international technical cooperation agency Expertise France. Expertise France is a French government agency for international technical cooperation and a subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD) Group. The organization implements projects in more than 140 countries, supporting the development of public institutions, education, culture, security, healthcare, and other sectors.
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.
