You're reading: Ukraine’s biggest TV channel to launch a new political talk show

Ukraine's biggest television channel Inter will launch a new political talk show that will seek to solve the nation's most urgent political gridlocks and will guarantee equal participation of the government and the opposition in the show, the channel's press service said in a statement. The new talk show will be called Spravedlyvist (Justice) and will be broadcast Fridays at 8:35 p.m. starting Jan. 25.

“Justice
is the program for
those who want to live in Ukraine,” the channel’s press
statement said. “The main
aim for the talk show is not just talk, but concrete proposals
to solve the
country’s problems — not just from politicians both from the
power and the
opposition, but from experts also.”

The show will be hosted
by Ukrainian veteran TV
anchor woman Anna Bezulyk, who until recently hosted a Sunday
night political
show on smaller Channel 5. Russian TV celebrity Yevgeniy
Kiselev, who had his
own political talk show on Inter on Friday night since 2009,
will no longer be working
there.

The
new talk show is being launched
soon after Ukraine’s most watched TV channel announced change in
its editorial
policy as a result of the work of a new, independent supervisory
council. It
was created late last year at the initiative of channel’s
majority owner,

former Deputy Prime
Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovsky.

The council, which is
comprised of prominent members
of the expert community, was created in December to advise on editorial policy, suggest
ideas for new programs and
make sure the station’s news coverage is balanced. The council’s
work coincided
with a very outspoken exit of Khoroshkovsky from the government.

Khoroshkovsky
resigned loudly as a deputy prime minister on Dec. 14, saying
that Prime
Minister Mykola Azarov was “unable to conduct economic reform
and protect the
strategic course of Ukraine towards European integration.”

His
channel then vowed to change the editorial policy, which for
years has been
positive towards the government and President Viktor Yanukovych.
Apart from
fairer news coverage, the channel promised to introduce a number
of new social
and political shows, including a major talk show on Friday
night, an
investigative news program and a show in the style of BBC’s Hard
Talk.

The station covers 99.7 percent of Ukraine’s
territory, according the channel’s own information and has the
greatest share
of national audience.

Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be
reached at [email protected].