“Community media” - what does it mean? How to ensure its development in Ukraine? How to apply and multiply the best European practices in Ukraine?

Representatives of local media and Council of Europe expert participants in the two-day seminars on hyper locality and community media had the opportunity to discover the answers to these and many other questions. The seminars took place in Odessa (4-5 July), Dnipro (6-7 July) and Ternopil (9-10 July). More than 60 representatives of local media attended the lectures of experts in this area and got acquainted with the best international practices.

Among the experts who delivered their lectures was Steve Buckley, a Council of Europe expert and Managing Director/Senior Research Consultant at CM Solutions, who has been working in the field of community media for more than 20 years. He shared his experience on the functioning of community media in the UK, the principles of its operation, strategic planning and financial management.

"This seminar was a great opportunity to learn about community media, which is a new phenomenon for Ukraine. I was surprised that it gives opportunities not only for journalists, but also for the community. We have learned a lot of useful and new information that still has to be thought through in order to be implemented in practice. It was useful to discuss the international experience on community media where this phenomenon has been successfully established", stated Tetyana Luta, one of the participants and a journalist at the “East and West Together” newspaper (Ternopil).

During the seminar participants had the possibility to discuss the peculiarities of creating regional media in Ukraine and received advice from experts on how to further develop their projects.

“This is something completely new in Ukrainian journalism. Сommunity media is a new idea, which would unite people with different experiences. This is an initiative from below. Although at first it all looks very strange and even incomprehensible, but during the seminar "eyes get opened" and it becomes clear  in which direction to move on”, said Oksana Vysochanska, editor at ZIK TV Channel (Lviv).

The summer schools on “Community media” as well as regional seminars are held within "Freedom of the media in Ukraine" Project in cooperation with the Independent Association of Broadcasters.

Background information:

The “Freedom of media in Ukraine” Project within the Council of Europe (CoE) and European Union (EU) Programmatic Cooperation Framework (PCF) is aimed to improve freedom, independence, pluralism and diversity of media in Ukraine. The total budget of the Project is €177,000. The project is financed by the European Union and implemented by the Council of Europe.  The project implementation period is 1 January - 31 December 2016. More information on the Project can be found here.