What is "public affairs"

In broadcasting, public affairs radio or television programs focus on matters of politics and public policy. Among commercial broadcasters, such programs are often only to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory expectations and are not scheduled in prime time. Public affairs television programs are usually broadcast at times when few listeners or viewers are tuned in (or even awake) in the U.S., in time slots known as graveyard slots; such programs can be frequently encountered at times such as 5-6 a.m. on a Sunday.

Public affairs coverage is carried as digital subchannels of existing state network Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member public television stations.

Government-access television (GATV) is cable channel capacity for local government bodies and other legislative entities to access the cable television systems to televise public affairs meetings.

At some (particularly national) broadcasters, "Public Affairs" may be a special unit, separate from the news department, dedicated to producing long-form public-affairs programming, as at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation prior to 1992. As of 2012, C-SPAN's three networks are the most widely known and widely available public affairs channels in the United States.

Public Affairs is a term for the formal offices of the branches of the United States Department of Defense whose purpose is to deal with the media and community issues. The term is also used for numerous media relations offices that are created by the U.S. military for more specific limited purposes. Public affairs offices are staffed by a combination of officers, enlisted personnel, civilian officials and contract professionals.

Public Affairs offices play a key role in contingency and deployed operations.

The typical Public Affairs office is led by an officer who is in charge of planning, budgeting for, executing and evaluating the effectiveness of public affairs programs, and provides public affairs advice, counsel and support for commanders and senior staff members.

Public affairs may refer to:

Public Affairs (, VV, nicknamed véčkaři) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic. Its main platform is transparency and opposing political corruption It had 24 seats in the 2010-2013 Chamber of Deputies. The party was formerly led by anti-establishment investigative journalist and writer Radek John, its current leader is Jiří Kohout.

Besides opposing corruption, the party was fiscally conservative. It has a number of right-wing populist policies, without opposing immigrants, but a proportion of its small membership is closer to the centre-left. The party is interested in direct democracy – the members of the party can change the course of the party by Internet referendums, and has a pro-European Union position.