You're reading: Social Democratic Party leader calls on authorities to resolve conflict with Channel 5 and TVi

Leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party Yevhen Korniychuk has said the conflict involving Channel 5 and the TVi Channel should be solved through a dialogue between the management and the owners of the channels with the authorities.

"The key priority for both the authorities and the owners of the media should be securing journalists’ rights under the condition that the journalists follow professional standards as much as possible," the press service of the party cited Korniychuk as saying on Monday.

The leader of the party said one of the main reasons for conflicts in the media space is "non-transparent" work of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, which could be eliminated through making amendments to the legislation.

"Tthis body usually took decisions on licensing depending on political and economic situation. After changes in government, the national council often changed its decisions. So, first of all, we should make amendments to the law "On the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council", better define the procedure for holding competitions, minimize the influence of subjective factors and hold members of the national council personally accountable for taking deliberately unjust decisions," Korniychuk said.

According to Korniychuk, financial capacities of the owners to develop their television and radio companies and their [the companies’] social impact should be the main factor in auctions for digital broadcasting.