Exciting news: four more newsrooms, our media grantees who have been affected by blackouts, now have EcoFlow Delta 2 charging stations! As part of the regional media support project, we provided this equipment to help their teams work efficiently.

Natalia Popovych, Horodok.City:

We came to work today and couldn’t stop talking about the gift we received from your team. Thank you all sincerely! It’s unbelievable! Our laptops used to last only 1-2 hours, and then we had to find alternative places to work, like someone’s house or the City Council. This was especially challenging on days when we needed to send the newspaper to print. We are as happy as children. Thank you so much!

Andrii Rusynyak, TRK RAI:

We are truly thankful to the IRMI project for supporting our energy stability. The EcoFlow Delta 2 will substantially ease the work of journalists at the Kolomyia headquarters during power outages, which are currently affecting the western regions of Ukraine. It is crucial for us and our audience to stay ‘online’ and be a reliable source of information. Your help is incredibly valuable during this difficult time of war.

Previously, another nine newsrooms in the project received charging equipment from Reporters Without Borders, whom we supplied with information on our partners’ needs.

We are excited to invite journalists to participate in the first training session of the ‘Social Cohesion: Roles and Opportunities for Ukrainian Media’ project.

* When? September 30 – October 2, 2024

* Where? Lviv

* Who is invited? Journalists from officially registered media who are interested in social cohesion in hromadas and eager to optimize their audience research.

What will you learn?

• Investigate community issues using available sociological tools.
• Identify what unites and divides communities.
• Work with open data to combat disinformation.
• Utilize various information sources.
• Employ crowdsourcing to find socially important topics.
• Cover sensitive topics while maintaining balance, professionalism, and ethical standards.

The Training Program Includes:

• Presentations
• Practical work
• Opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences

All travel, accommodation, and meals will be covered by the organizers.

This training is part of the ‘Social Cohesion: Roles and Opportunities for Ukrainian Media’ project, which incorporates:

• sociological research on Ukrainian journalists’ awareness of social cohesion, identifying knowledge gaps, and understanding active citizens’ views on the role of the media in addressing these issues
• three training sessions for media professionals interested in social cohesion
• fifteen mini-grants for the preparation of publications on social cohesion topics
• mentoring support for grantees, and
• a round table to present research findings and project results.

Interested? Register for the first training by September 21 using this link.

Selected participants will be notified in advance.

This project was developed and implemented by the Institute for Regional Media and Information and supported by UNESCO and the people of Japan. It is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to promote the safety of journalists and freedom of expression in Ukraine.

The Institute for Regional Media and Information (IRMI) and Fondation Hirondelle (Switzerland) are lauching a mini-grants competition for Ukrainian civil society organisations that work to support reporters, foster media development and enhance media literacy.  

Eligibility Criteria

• Officially registered and active public organizations based in Ukraine.
• Public organizations whose mission is to support media development, media literacy, and promote access to information in Ukraine.
• Public organizations that provide professional support to journalists and local media, foster active networking and have a finalised, but not yet funded, action plan.

Grant Details

• Selected projects are to start no later than August 1 to be completed within 2 months.
• The size of each grant is an amount in hryvnias equivalent to 4,000 Swiss francs.
• Grantees will also participate in institutional capacity building training. This program will be conducted by a team of Ukrainian and international experts who have extensive experience working with NGOs in Ukraine.

The Focus of the Project

The Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine project recognizes the important role of regional mass media in informing Ukrainians, especially those living in front-line areas or temporarily occupied territories. The project is aimed at strengthening and developing the media as a tool for promoting public dialogue and strengthening the social cohesion across Ukrainian society both during the war and during the country’s recovery.

Project’s Areas of Focus

• Development of media self-governance tools.
• Increasing media literacy in communities.
• Ensuring equal access to information.
• Promotion of experience exchange between editorial teams and reporters.
• Capacity building and fostering long-term sustability of media organizations.
• Supporting local media as a platform for social cohesion debate in their communities.

Priority will be given to local media NGOs that are not part/subprojects/offices of larger organizations.

What do We not Cover

• Costs not directly related to the project: (indirect costs) – the salary of project implementers over 10% of its total budget, office rent, etc.
• International travel.
• Fuel costs.
• Team building events.
• Purchase of food, alcohol or personal items.
• Additional funding for ongoing projects or co-financing of other projects.

How to Apply

Follow the link to apply.

Submit the budget document (linked to the application form).

Both documents must be submitted no later than the 25^th of July 2024. Successful candidates will be informed before the 29^th of July 2024. Don’t miss this exceptional chance to be the agent of positive change in your community!

How do we cover court cases related to war crimes in a professional way? Another three-day training for specialist media professional was held in Kyiv. Journalists and editors, participants of the IRMI and the Fondation Hirondelle project ‘Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine’, funded by Swiss Solidarity, are learning and improving their experience. The training is led by JusticeInfo experts.

For investigative journalist development trainings we tend to go for hot-button analytical issues. This time, for example, we discuss the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and at which point it becomes a war crime; persons missing under special circumstances; collaboration cases; challenges and progress in accountability for war-related environmental crimes, and many other topics. Ukrainian and foreign journalists, representatives of the prosecutor’s office, judges, human rights defenders – this range of experts allows participants to exchange experiences, pose any new questions to practitioners, people with extensive professional experience, who can give practical advice and help avoid mistakes. How to interview victims, whether it is possible to access public information by filing a request that will not be rejected – we hope these and other practical skills will help journalists in their daily work.

By the way, the coverage of war crimes training was delivered to mini-grants awardees last week as part of professional development support to journalists the project has been granting.

We do our best to ensure that our media management trainings provide answers to the fundamental questions media professionals have to ask; we offer tools that allow media professionals to build strategies, find new audiences, resources, partners to offer a better and more up-to-date news product. Five days of training in Lviv – this time with sociologists involved, together with Ukrainian and international media experts.

It is not just about audience research, it is about what the community thinks about social cohesion, about what unites or divides people. The training is part of the ‘Enhancing Media Resilience in Ukraine’ project, which IRMI has been implementing together with  Fondation Hirondelle with the financial support of Swiss Solidarity.

Determining the community’s priorities and needs, being in the loop, being in demand, being competitive are essential for the media. How to measure your audience needs, sentiments, be part of research, use sociological tools, and then make a good use of research findings is the subject matter of these training days. The trainees are editors and managers of the regional media that are part of the project – like no other understand how the success of a media outlet depends on an accurate understanding of the audience needs, especially in the matter that is most relevant to our society. Therefore, today we present the general findings of the first, qualitative stage of the research, we conducted in the hromadas where our grantees work. With the expert researcher, Ph.D. Alina Kalashnikova, we discuss the possibilities of using research, external and internal audiences, qualitative and quantitative methods, target audience, sampling, and more. And most importantly – how to research the hromadas scattered across Ukraine and abroad. We are generating questions for the next, quantitative stage of the research.

From the analysis of needs to the development of media strategies – this is how we will move throughout the training. So: can each editorial office afford a thorough training on legal principles of personnel management? The question is probably a rhetorical one. With this in mind, we invited Taras Boykovych, a lawyer and an IRMI expert, to conduct a public consultation for our partner media. Journalists were interested in personnel management, workflow organization, economic activities of the media and many other matters.

Taras Boykovych:

– Journalists, especially news organisations leadership, must be very well versed about legal regulations. Being knowledgeable about rights, managing the media competently, not to harm oneself and others, being able to professionally explain legal matters to readers is extremely important for the media. I believe Ukrainian media law is quite good, well adapted to international frameworks; the thing is just for it to be executed, to make it work, simply put.

Discussion of communication tools, editorial strategies that focus on greater audience engagement, productive public relations was facilitated by Angelina Soldatenko. The day ended on a team building note: emotionally, everyone supported Ukraine’s national team at Euro-2024 Ukraine vs Belgium match.

The quintessence of the next training day, SEO-related – from trainer and SEO expert Olga Odarchenko:

-SEO does not exist in isolation from content. It is a means of its delivery, which helps to create the content that the user needs. With regard to the demand in search engines, of course. But in fact, it’s all about content, not about search engines, but about the audience. The most common mistake of media professionals is that they want to do either everything or nothing pertaining SEO, although first you need to understand what the audience needs are and what exactly competitors are doing. There are also technical errors, there are no analysts, when the media do not track the consequences of what they do (or do not do). What would be the advice for beginners? Create your website. Focus on your audience, track feedback, reviews, views, analyze what is in demand to inform your agenda. Is it possible for local newsrooms to master SEO tools on their own and at a low cost? -Definitely yes. You don’t need to be a SEO guru to optimize your site and mind you readers interests. There are many examples known to us when the media have retained their audiences thanks to a competent SEO person. SEO also helps you make money.

Five days of professional work with framing techniques. MOJO training has kicked off in Lviv for media professionals participating in the ‘Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine’ project who have completed basic mojo training. Those who use MOJO practices in their daily work and view them as an integral part of the newsroom strategy were invited. By the way, we additionally purchased wireless microphone systems for four such newsrooms.

During these busy days, an international team of four trainers offered a course as hands on as it could get. From the analysis of common mistakes, we move on to mobile journalism skills polishing, which is in great demand with the newsrooms. We talk about professional camera apps, settings, shutter speed, White Balance, and ISO. We discuss the fundamental aspects of the work: how to shoot difficult interviews, faceless interviews, figuring out all the difficult aspects with the trainers on the spot. Is it easy to choose a shooting location? How do we control light, sound, frame, how to get short answers during an interview. What techniques can be used to shoot exciting videos and Vox Pops. We supplement day sessions practice with evening homework: how about storyboarding an evening in Lviv city.

MOJO techniques were practiced in the city with interesting topics and insightful soundbites. Here is a street musician playing a melody from Lviv. Here are students: what is their take on Lviv? How does a morning in Lviv start? Are there really acquaintances from Bohodukhiv walking down the street? Two-minute stories with ideas and reflections – it turns out that this time is enough to hear the people and the metropolis. The combination of curious ideas and professional approaches to video shooting and editing was discussed with the experts.

IRMI is implementor of ‘Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine’ project together with Fondation Hirondelle with the financial support of Swiss Solidarity.

The participants of mobile journalism trainings will confirm that practice is an essential component of the training sessions. The new training kicked off with the participants familiarizing themselves with equipment to be used during the training days to follow: the attendees received sets of professional equipment with accessories for their editorial offices – modern smartphones, wireless microphone systems, LED lighting, tripods, and handy equipment bags. The training takes place as part of the ‘Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine’ project, implemented by IRMI together with Fondation Hirondelle with the financial support of Swiss Solidarity.

The participants set up the equipment, discussed and practiced the principles of shooting, the basics of framing, working with a tripod, light and microphone. We did a lot of practical exercises to practice editing, interview preparation, audio recordings and other skills. The last day was fully hands on, and the level of professionalism and journalistic skills of the group was highly appreciated by the trainers. The journalists chose the most relevant topics, including the one of social cohesion. We interviewed Lviv residents and IDPs – we even found compatriots from Izyum, Bakhmut, and Zaporizhzhia. We talked to experts. The protagonists were people of different ages, and they all spoke about social cohesion as a great value. The interviews grew into professional stories, as theirs authors worked not just to develop the topic, but also to build up their shooting, video and audio editing, and scriptwriting skills. The authors of the four best stories (selected by voting) received Lviv sweets – there is usually a mini festival at each training’s finale.

Mobile journalism offers tools that allow media professionals to get a new quality of the product, visualize stories and increase their credibility. Per the results of the training, experts believe that all participants are ready to use new skills in their daily work.

We have launched trainings for new project participants!

‘Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine’, which we have been implementing for several years in a row together with our partners – Fondation Hirondelle and with the financial support of Swiss Solidarity – has engaged with new editorial offices from Ukraine‘s east and center. So, these days we are conducting two several-day trainings for the ‘newcomers’ to start with media management.

We promise an intensive professional skills recharge with a lot of practical work, a highly interactive pastime with discussions and experience building. We are talking about effective management, target audiences and public interest. What are the skills that we need to develop? What is our unique product? Finding new forms of fundraising during the war is very important, so we discuss crowdfunding, grant writing, and donations. And tomorrow is a day to brainstorm ideas for strategic planning.

It is equally important to analyze the current state of things in newsrooms, identify weaknesses and threats in order to move on to the top priority – the development of new editorial strategies and approaches. Brainstorming is the best tool for this. Therefore, the groups ‘stormed’ on new media development ideas, search for resources, new audiences and their markets. They also talked about reputational risks for journalists and publications, editorial rules and values, performance evaluation, and incentive systems. How to maintain personal pages and blogs and use the power of social media. As a matter of fact, the ideas that we discussed at this training will be taken to the next one to start tomorrow. There is an equally exciting topic ahead – mobile journalism.

Oleksandr Kulbaka, Chief Editor of the ‘Vesti’ newspaper and journalist for ‘Karachun’ website:

– I liked the organic combination of theory and practice, the break-out sessions. Our group would seem to have offered everything. It turned out that others still had so much to add, though! But isn’t it obvious! There are so many people, so much experience, so I hope that at the next training one of my colleagues will share their successful management practices with the audience.

Yevhen Khrypun, Editor of the ‘Mezhivsky Meridian’ raion newspaper:

-The brainstorming was great. Thank you for the positive thinking tactics, we were just brought to the peak in this. Frankly, I look forward to the next meeting with colleagues and trainers, life exchange, new ideas and updates.

How do we cover court cases related to war crimes? What experience has Ukraine accumulated so far, and what do foreign experts have to share? How do we build up our skills? How do we keep up with legal regulations? What are the tools for conducting investigations and searching for information? A three-day training was held in Kyiv,  conducted by JusticeInfo experts as part of the IRMI and Fondation Hirondelle project  ‘Strengthening Media Resilience in Ukraine’, funded by Swiss Solidarity.

“War crimes are what the country has been suffering from. What could be more relevant? The experts of the training are true specialists. A fully used up scrapbook, a lot of useful information that still needs to be analyzed.” “This is the first time I took part in such a training. This is a significant amount of knowledge, which I immediately shared with my colleagues. And this means that a new column will appear in our editorial office (we discussed this today during the editorial meeting).” That is the feedback from the journalists participating in our training on covering court cases related to war crimes. Every time we strive to ensure that media professionals specializing in covering war crimes receive comprehensive and thorough training, so we invite working journalists and editors with local and international experience, as well as representatives of the prosecutor’s office, judges, and human rights defenders as trainers. During these three days, we plan to discuss everything – from general concepts of a war crime, genocide and a crime against humanity, to sources and practices. The trainers offer to analyze common mistakes in crimes coverage and the ‘golden rules’ of an investigative journalist. There has always been great interest in such development trainings, also among the journalists and editorial offices that are not part of the project. So, early this year, IRMI, Fondation Hirondelle and Justice Info launched the first round of a mini-grant competition for reports covering court cases related to war crimes, as you may remember. The first ten awardees have been determined to participate in a several-day training on war crimes investigations, led by Ukrainian, international trainers, and legal professionals. Moreover, there is another round of the competition ahead. There will be trainings for ten more awardees, so we will be supporting you not only in financial, but also in professional terms.

Congratulations to the winners of the CEI SEEMO competition! The established professional competition awards media professionals annually for outstanding achievements in investigative journalism, the awards are presented by the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the Media Organization of Southeast Europe Seemo Vienna. Ukrainian media workers received special awards.

The independent jury of the competition included journalists and experts from Albania, Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine was represented by IRMI program director Oleksiy Soldatenko. This year journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina became laureates, and Ukrainian journalists received special awards. Taras Zozulinskyi, chairman of the board of the Bureau of journalistic investigations “Detectives”, was awarded for his extensive journalistic work in documenting war crimes during the Russian aggression in Ukraine in cooperation with several mass media and human rights organizations. The Slidstvo.info team received high praise for its highly professional work on exposing corruption in Ukraine, which resulted in several outstanding investigative documentaries.

The award ceremony was held on November 14, 2023, during the Southeast Europe Media Forum in Turin (Albania).

The CEI SEEMO Award was established to honor the work of investigative journalists and their contribution to investigative journalism, despite the often complex operational environment. The award ceremony was organized in cooperation with the Southeast European Media Organization (SEEMO) and the Central European Initiative (CEI).

Photo by SEEMO.