It is planned to allocate almost ₴8 million to cover the activities of the Mykolaiv City Council in 2025

Mykolaiv journalists take a comment from the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. Archive photo: NikVesti

Deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council continued the program for the development of the information sphere, laying down estimated costs of 7.7 million hryvnias for 2025.

The decision was made during the online session of the City Council on October 30, NikVesti and reports.

The amount may change during the approval of the city budget.

In 2024, 7.1 million hryvnias were allocated for the implementation of this program.

Within the framework of the program, it is planned to allocate:

• 6.2 million hryvnias for covering the activities of local authorities through electronic media, including publications and television stories;
• 1.4 million hryvnias for printed publications.

In total, for the next year, it is planned to produce 750 television stories, print 350 announcements and solutions, and create 260 publications for Internet resources.

During the discussion at the specialized committee on issues of legality and publicity, it was stated that 2.7 million hryvnias are planned to be spent on covering the activities of the city council, and 5.5 million hryvnias are planned to be spent on media coverage of the executive bodies of the city hall.

Separate 144 thousand hryvnias are planned to be spent on broadcasting meetings of the city council and commissions.

Reforming communal television in Mykolaiv

The Law of Ukraine «On Media» provides for the reform of communal television and radio companies, which are now being transformed into public audiovisual media. The reform is aimed at protecting companies from the influence of the owner and promoting their independence. The goal is for them to be able to convey local information to their audience and be a tool for dialogue within communities.

Ukraine has already passed the reform of the nationalization of the press and the creation of the Public Television on the basis of the state television company. However, communal TV channels and radio were not reformed. They are owned by local self-government bodies and financed from local budgets. According to the regulator, 138 such companies are registered, 82 companies are currently operating, Detektor Media reported in April last year.

The law provides for four options for the reform of communal TV channels:

• reorganization into a communal unitary (non-commercial) enterprise,
• withdrawal from the ownership structure of the local government and transfer to its collective,
• privatization,
• termination or cancellation of the license if the company does not make any changes.

The law regulates the issue of public audiovisual media in its section III. And also allocates half a year from the moment of the abolition of martial law to the reform of communal television and radio organizations, the Institute of Mass Information reported.

MART TV channel was one of the participants in the pilot project and planned to reform at the end of last year. Mykolaiv City Council deputies were offered to make a decision on the reorganization of the TV channel by transforming it from a communal enterprise (KP) into a communal non-commercial enterprise (KNP) and to allocate almost 13 million for the maintenance of the TV channel in 2024.

The director of the utility company MART Vitalii Meheda explained that the full maintenance of the television and radio company in 2024 by the budget of Mykolaiv «needs the community", because in this way residents will be able to receive information about the work of local authorities.

The head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitaly Kim, who is also a deputy of the city council from the «Servant of the People» party, expressed the opinion that the city's communal TV channel must be maintained at the expense of the budget until the end of martial law, and only then make a decision about its sale or transfer to a collective property of journalists.

After long discussions, the deputies did not agree on the decision to reform the TV channel.

We will remind that in November, the MART TV channel purchased a 5 by 3 meter LED screen for 1.5 million hryvnias.

It was previously reported that the municipal enterprise of the Mykolaiv City Council «Teleradiokompaniia «MART» congratulated and praised the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych, who was elected to the board of the international movement of mayors for the fight against climate change at the summit in Dubai.