Real lives

Interviews from the Prix Jeunesse 2008

Irina Pugach, Chief Producer, TV & Broadcasting Joint-Stock Company “Ukraine”

The Prix Jeunesse is headquartered in Munich and its biannual festival is held there. Other Foundation activities can take place anywhere in the world. The Prix Jeunesse Foundation seeks to improve the quality of TV worldwide for young people by deepening understanding and promoting communication among nations. The latest edition of the festival took place from May 30 - June 5, 2008.

Short interview with Irina Pugach, Chief Producer, TV & Broadcasting Joint-Stock Company “Ukraine” (June 1, 2008)

How did you become involved with children’s media?
As the management of the programme, my work is to create the children’s programmes. So I created a programme for children. It’s a bit entertaining and a bit educational. Children’s media is the whole world for me!

What do you like best about working for children’s TV?
I love the possibility to create the positive TV programming. These programmes are not annoying for children. I like most to bring them positive emotions.

How many times have you attended the PRIX JEUNESSE festival before?
This is my first time and I’m really impressed!

What are you most interested in at the festival?
Everything! I get inspiration from the every moment of the festival. But the most challenging and interesting thing to me are the gender issues of children’s ordinary lives.

Since the theme of this year’s festival is “Girls and Boys & Television – The Role of Gender”, complete the following sentence: If I were a man…
Then I’m a fan of girls! I would like to talk to girls!

Kyrgyzstan - Children's media country profile

Written by Gulmira Aitymbetova, Kyrgyzstan

There are two state and four commercial TV channels in the Kyrgyz Republic. In addition, some provinces have their own TVstations, which broadcast mostly local news and other specials. Unfortunately, the media for children is virtually undeveloped in the country. Out of all channels, only a handful of children’s programmes exist in the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (“The 1st National”). Other channels broadcast the foreign cartoons and movies.

The TV programmes for children on “The 1st National” account for approximately 2% of its total air time. “The 1st National” offers three regular programmes for children - “The Magic Journey”, “A Test For Adults” and “Nevseznayka”. The fist one is aired every day while the other two are broadcast weekly. Few other TV programmes include specials, which are made for a particular event and foreign movies or educational programmes dubbed into Kyrgyz languages.

There are no specialized children’s TV channels in the country. Until recently, “The 1st National” offered programmes dedicated to children’s creativity and art. The programmes covered young audience from 8 to 12. Other age groups remained uncovered. As of the end of 2006, “The 1st National” broadcast new animated series for pre-school children, which is called “The Magic Journey”. The TV animated programme was funded by UNICEF and its partners and remains the only educational TV programme for preschoolers. Almost all children in Kyrgyzstan (98%) have access to TV at home.

In general, children’s TV is virtually non-existent in the country. The TV channels pay little or no attention to developing programmes for children, especially educational.
Internet is only available in the main city of Bishkek and provincial centres and used by teenage children and older. The children’s books, magazines and newspapers, mostly from Russia, are available in the market but remain unaffordable for the majority. Most parents and caregivers have no money and often underestimate the role of print media in a child’s development. Therefore, neither Internet nor print media have significant influence on children’s TV industry.

The animated TV series “Magic Journey”, created with support from UNICEF, remainsthe most popular children’s TV programme since its first appearance in 2006. Other
programmes watched by Kyrgyz children are programmes on Russian channels broadcasted in Kyrgyzstan (intellectual or sport game shows and animated series). The
children’s TV market in our country has only started its development. So our children’s programming remains generally primitive.

Kyrgyz producers mainly have no restrictions or obstacles in the creation and realization of their ideas. The main reasons of the constant state of our children’s programming are the lack of finances and the absence of specialists.

Source

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