The emergence of a new Ukraine offers an opportunity to reinvigorate the European project and reaffirm its ideals of union, solidarity, democracy and peace. A strong, successful Ukraine protects against a democratic backslide in the east of the continent. With this in mind, Eurozine is coordinating a media exchange project in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for Europe, OSIFE, that links independent media in Ukraine with “alternative” media in five countries in western Europe: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Greece. The aim is to promote critical, informed and nuanced voices that counter the dominant discourse of crisis concerning Ukraine.
The project raises awareness among media professionals and journalists of social, political and cultural debates in Ukraine, and supports them in providing a multifaceted and diverse image of Ukraine to readers and viewers. By facilitating the exchange of media products (articles, TV-reports) between Ukrainian media and media outlets in the target countries, the project introduces an international public to debates in Ukraine on topics such as human rights, the environment, the refugee crisis (both within and outside Ukraine’s borders), labour law and union rights, austerity politics, cultural policy and LGBT rights.
Through a journalists’ exchange programme, journalists will have a unique opportunity to produce reportage, make contact with their Ukrainian colleagues and gain insight into the topics and debates most relevant to them. In the long run, the project is geared toward establishing strong and reliable relationships between journalists and media in Ukraine and European countries that result in long-term media co-operations and widely disseminated reportage about developments in Ukraine beyond crisis communication and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
This project is supported by a grant from the Open Society Initiative for Europe within the Open Society Foundations.
