INTERNEWS the Media Program in Ukraine YEAR TWO

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INTERNEWS

The Media Program in Ukraine

YEAR TWO IMPLEMENTATION PLAN Oct. 1, 2019 – Sept. 30, 2020 USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001

GILLIAN MCCORMACK CHIEF OF PARTY

SUBMITTED: SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Table of Contents

Acronyms ...... 3

Executive Summary ...... 4

Summary of Media Program in Ukraine activities by USAID Democracy Objectives ...... 4

MPU PARTNER APPROACH, ROLES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES ...... 10

YEAR 2 ACTIVITIES AND TARGETS ...... 13

OBJECTIVE 1: Increase high-quality, engaging content throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South ...... 13

1.1. Support for UA:PBC and local affiliates ...... 15 1.2. Increasing and improving content production on reforms ...... 17 1.3. Improving elections coverage ...... 20 1.4. Supporting investigative journalism ...... 22 1.5. Strengthening professional development and cross-regional linkages ...... 24 1.6. Emphasizing interventions in the East and South ...... 30 OBJECTIVE 2: Increase public demand for quality information ...... 34

2.1. Streamlining media literacy efforts ...... 35 2.2. Expanding media monitoring efforts ...... 41 OBJECTIVE 3. Implement critical media reforms...... 44

3.1. Supporting application of key media reforms ...... 46 3.2. Providing legal assistance ...... 52 3.3. Supporting advocacy and oversight ...... 56 OBJECTIVE 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions and processes ...... 57

4.1. Supporting pivotal governance mechanisms ...... 59 4.2. Strengthening and expanding partnerships and coalitions ...... 62 4.3. Laying the foundation for sustained local media actors’ engagement in democratic processes ...... 65 Gender ...... 67

Inclusive Development ...... 68

Sustainability...... 69

Acronyms

AUP NGO Academy of Ukrainian Press (www.aup.com.ua) CSO Civil Society Organization DG Democracy and Governance DII Donetsk Institute for Information DM Detector Media (http://detector.media/) EC European Commission EU European Union GOU Government of Ukraine IAB Independent Association of Broadcasters (http://www.nam.org.ua/) IMI NGO Institute of Mass Information (http://imi.org.ua/) IPC NGO Information and Press Center (http://investigator.org.ua/) IPI Institute of Political Information (https://informer.od.ua/) IR Investigative Reporting IUA NGO Internews Ukraine (http://www.internews.ua) KPC Kharkiv Press Club LS Local Solutions CEDEM Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (former Media Law Institute (MLI)), http://cedem.org.ua/ MSI Media Sustainability Index OD Organizational Development ENGAGE Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement MELP Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan MPU Media Program in Ukraine POID Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (http://idpo.org.ua/) UA:PBC The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine(https://suspilne.media/) RIJN Regional Investigative Journalism Network program RPDI NGO Regional Press Development Institute (http://www.irrp.org.ua/) RPR Reanimation Package of Reforms (http://rpr.org.ua/) SF Suspilnist Foundation (http://souspilnist.org/en/) TPC Ternopil Press Club USAID US Agency for International Development WM Weekly Mirror

Executive Summary

Internews launched The Media Program in Ukraine (MPU) on October 1, 2018. Implementation will run through September 30, 2023. Working in close collaboration with local media organizations and international resource partners, this five-year program will strengthen the accountability and capacity of the Ukrainian media sector to provide citizens with relevant and engaging information, expand media literacy, help key institutions implement reforms, and build media industry standards and sustainability. The program will strengthen Ukraine’s democratic development, bolster its ability to counter Russia-linked disinformation, and foster European integration. While nationwide in scope, MPU will prioritize areas where independent media are under greatest strain and where local news is most vulnerable to malign, Kremlin-driven narratives.

Objective 1: Increase high- quality engaging content • DO1 Corruption Reduced in Target Sectors throughout Ukraine, • DO2 Impacts of Russian Aggression particularly in the East and Mitigated South • DO2 Impacts of Russian Aggression Objective 2: Increase public Mitigated demand for quality information • DO3 Democratic Governance Strengthened Objective 3: Implement critical • DO3 Democratic Governance Strengthened media reforms Objective 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions • DO3 Democratic Governance Strengthened and processes

Summary of Media Program in Ukraine activities by USAID Democracy Objectives Democracy Objective 1: Corruption Reduced in Target Sector

Intermediate Result 1.1 Strengthened anti-corruption systems and practices and Intermediate Result 1.2 Economic impact of corruption reduced in key sectors

• The media play a vital role in keeping government and people in power accountable through investigative reporting. Internews will support UA:PBC’s new investigative reporting team through documentaries that will draw on talent from UA:PBC’s regional affiliates, the Information and Press Center will focus on joint investigations with journalists in Ukraine’s South, the Regional Press Development Institute will organize its major annual conference for investigative reporters and provide new training events and support for reporters around the country, and

Slidstvo.info (the Ukrainian partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) will organize 12 events to facilitate citizen engagement around the issues they uncover and draw responsible officials into constructive conversations about how to achieve progress in combatting corruption. Investigative reporting makes a civic contribution to strengthening anti-corruption systems and practices, as well as reduces the economic impact of corruption in key sectors.

Intermediate Result 1.3 Increased health systems transparency

• Internews will launch a competition for engaging content around health in December 2019. We are working with UNICEF to find ways of joining forces around the issues of improving transparency and trust in the health system through health journalism training, content that informs target groups about the benefits of vaccination, and data journalism actions that could help the Ministry of Health verify information about the number of vaccines needed in each region, as well as investigative journalism that could address, for example, the corrupt practice of the sale of false vaccination certificates for children (so that they can get around the ban on unvaccinated children attending public schools). A number of Ukrainian media partners, for example LIGA and Toronto TV, are interested in producing content about the health system.

Democracy Objective 2: Impacts of Russian Aggression Mitigated

Intermediate Result 2.3 Increased availability and consumption of quality information

• Ukraine’s biggest challenge in combatting disinformation is a corrupt national media sphere dominated by oligarchs with political interests, with one exception, the national public service broadcaster UA:PBC. Internews will provide a raft of support to UA:PBC and its local affiliates designed to strengthen its brand recognition amongst the public, taking advantage of the success of the USAID-funded Countdown political talk show which garnered an audience of 26.5m Ukrainians in 2019. Praised by media watchdogs and election observers as the most balanced talk show on TV, UA:PBC is building its reputation for high-quality news and informative programming. In Y2 UA:PBC will continue to produce the Countdown as a weekly political talk show, and add new content in the form of a “hard talk”-style interview show and an online drama series aimed at teens, tackling themes of media literacy and disinformation. A major promotional campaign will help raise awareness of UA:PBC’s new independent brand and draw more viewers across all its platforms – national, regional, TV, radio and online. • Ukraine’s media need mentoring as well as investment to improve the quality of their content production. To that end, Suspilnist Foundation will continue to work on its Media Incubator, a program of training for young journalism students with internships provided at major media through its Media Mobility Hub. Suspilnist will launch a new national initiative called Open Media Stories for inter-regional exchanges with a raft of training on new media start-ups, financial viability, digital security culture and combatting disinformation. Training and internship opportunities will be provided through Suspilnist Foundation’s Young Reporters Pool, an annual conference of the Media Interns Association and two Schools of Strategic 5

Communication and Anti-Fakes. The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) will expand its Content Generator Program and work on reducing piracy with an improved online marketplace for regional media to share content, the development of original engaging formats for audio and video content, the Honor of Profession professional journalism competition, a Ukrainian Media E-School and a School of Advanced Convergent Media Programming. The Kharkiv Press Club will continue to facilitate professional exchanges between journalists around Ukraine by organizing two press tours for journalists from at least 17 regions (half from the East and South). Internews Ukraine will provide digital safety audits for five selected regional media companies, and Detector Media will run a course for journalists called Quality Media Against Propaganda and Manipulation. The Academy of Ukrainian Press will run two training events for regional university journalism students in professional standards, verifying information, and identifying fakes. • The Media Program in Ukraine has a focus on regions in the East and South of Ukraine. The Institute of Mass Information will produce media monitoring data on media coverage of the reform process and coverage of Crimea, focusing on Mykolayiv, Odesa, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv. The Information and Press Center is continuing to run two new Media Hubs to support quality journalism in the South located in Genichesk and Kherson. Its flagship “National Security Issue” TV and online show will focus on important issues affecting people living in the East and South. The Donetsk Institute of Information organizes an annual Donbas Media Forum and is supporting a network of journalists in the East to improve the quality and audience reach of their content. The Institute of Political Information acts as a media hub in Odesa and will run a South Ukraine Media Training program providing content production support. The Kharkiv Press Club is introducing internships for journalism students to help students develop training events that will draw in young journalists, carry out media events with online broadcasts, and produce news reports to be shared with 30 local media partners in the East. • The Media Program in Ukraine will support creative solutions to counter propaganda, increase demand for high-quality media, and cultivate critical thinking through interactive exhibitions, online comedies, competitions and engaging multimedia content. Activities include the Propagandarium exhibition by Internews Ukraine, short video comedies by Detector Media, the “Catch a Fake!” competition by the Institute of Mass Information, and radio/online talk shows by Hromadske Radio. The TrollessUA action is designed to counter disinformation by gathering volunteers (Cyber Elves) to identify trolls operating in the Ukrainian Facebook space. Internews Ukraine will teach the Cyber Elves to identify suspicious or inauthentic accounts that are spreading Kremlin narratives online. After verifying the accounts are suspicious, IUA will inform Facebook to ask for their removal. • The Academy of Ukrainian Press will run media education schools for secondary school and preschool teachers throughout Ukraine’s regions, with an emphasis on the East, South and West. The schools for teachers are a way to promote the effective integration of media literacy into mandatory secondary school disciplines and preschool curricula, by increasing teachers’ confidence in teaching the field. • Media literacy summer camps are a fun and popular way for the Academy of Ukrainian Press to teach older schoolchildren how to consume media messages

critically, how to recognize disinformation, how to avoid being manipulated by media content, and how to create quality media products. • The Academy of Ukrainian Press, Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy will jointly organize a nationwide media literacy conference for 250 media literacy practitioners from different regions of Ukraine to facilitate cooperation between media watchdogs, media outlets, educators, the Ministry of Education and Sciences, librarians, and scholars. The Academy of Ukrainian Press will develop new learning resources for media literacy teachers and school kids, to be shared with all media literacy practitioners and on the Online Media Literacy Resource Hub. • The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy and Ternopil Press Club will conduct media literacy discussions, trainings and interactive events in the regions for editors-in-chief of national and local outlets, media portals, information agencies, media experts and interested individuals to tackle the problems in the media space that have been identified by media monitoring experts. • Internews will run a Y2 media literacy grants competition in December 2019 to expand media literacy efforts to more schools and other audiences, particularly in the East and South; improve citizen skills to determine quality media content; increase public demand for high-quality content; and improve citizens’ critical thinking skills to discern disinformation. • Media monitoring plays a critical role in quality oversight and self-regulation, especially during elections. Internews partners Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy will create user-friendly analyses of media performance, disinformation, gender bias and political influence in the most popular TV and online resources, as well as a selection of destatized community newspapers around the country. • Whitelisting: The Institute of Mass Information will select Ukrainian online media on the basis of the quality and ethics of their reporting to be part of a Whitelist. Whitelisted media will be promoted with international, national and regional advertisers as safe and responsible media with which to place advertising, conveying a financial advantage to media for observing high professional standards.

Democracy Objective 3: Democratic Governance Strengthened

Intermediate Result 3.1 Citizens engaged in good governance

• When the Media Program in Ukraine was designed there was an assumption that the major needed media reforms had been successfully passed and that the onus of our work should be on implementation. However, with the advent of a new government with a strong majority, it is possible that new legislative priorities may affect the media landscape in unexpected ways. The Media Program will work to ensure that its Ukrainian partners specializing in media policy reform and advocacy are able to provide oversight over any new laws that might impact media freedom. The initial focus will be on the draft of the audiovisual services law, which is part of Ukraine’s commitments to bringing national legislation in line with European law. It should contain important elements including those that may impact state and co-

regulation of the media sector, and the privatization of municipal and local government-owned broadcast media around the country. • The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) has been tasked by the government to play moderator through the initial discussions between the national broadcasting companies about the content of the audiovisual services bill. This is positive, in that one of Internews’ partners is already involved in the preparation stages and is therefore knowledgeable about the draft’s contents, however a broader role for civil society lawyers needs to be established. The Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) will hold an expert session for media lawyers and other stakeholders on the key changes needed in the audiovisual sector, while IAB will organize regular updates and organize stakeholder meetings mainly focused on the privatization aspects of the bill. CEDEM and IAB will share research on relevant issues and prepare public statements together with partners of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (a forum encompassing major civil society organizations). • CEDEM will monitor the situation around internet freedom in Ukraine, advocating for the online space as a broad and inclusive place for public discussion, preventing restrictions to freedom of speech, and ensuring that any limits placed on access to information are justified according to international and European legal standards. • Ukraine is one of the world’s worst offenders when it comes to the use of pirated content, which makes it difficult for broadcast content to be shared or marketed to potential buyers abroad. The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) will host three training events where media representatives will be taught about free content resources, ways to use cost-effective paid content libraries and rules for obtaining rights for the copyright content of other broadcasters. CEDEM will advocate for higher awareness of copyright rules and produce analysis on the most egregious abuses of copyright. • Internews will hold the Third National Media Talk – a national media gathering for frank discussions about the challenges and opportunities facing Ukraine’s media sector – in October 2019, this year focusing on self-regulatory and co-regulatory approaches for effective governance in the media sector. • The UA:PBC’s Supervisory and Executive Management Boards have seen a turbulent period in 2019 and Internews plans to help both boards work on more constructive relations with one another through expert consultation and moderated discussions, as well as clearly defining the roles of each in their oversight functions according to the Law on Public Service Broadcasting. • Internews partners will coordinate events (roundtables, discussions, informal gatherings) on self-regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms for the media sector. The Media for Conscious Choice movement (with over 70 signatories including journalists, media watchdogs and media companies) work on improvements to media regulation and strengthening media governance institutions. • In Y2, Internews will focus on engaging self-regulatory organizations like the Independent Media Council (IMC) and the Commission for Journalists’ Ethics in projects that improve the functioning of feedback mechanisms for citizens to report on ethical violations, advocate for media self- and co-regulation as priorities and attempt to come to a joint vision on the establishment of a press card system. • The Media Program in Ukraine will support of the founders of the Independent Media Council (Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Internews Ukraine,

Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, and Suspilnist Foundation) to monitor the preparation by the ruling party of the law on audiovisual services, publicizing potential advantages/disadvantages, and consolidating the key functions of the council. • The Suspilnist Foundation will support the formation of a group of young advisors to the Independent Media Council and establish a National Press Club to coordinate professional gatherings to promote self-regulation, share experience among leaders of media reforms in Ukraine and abroad, and strengthen advocacy networks. The National Press Club will be a forum to establish innovative partnerships and coalitions on media reforms among civil society organizations, organizations that support the media sector, private sector groups and groups aimed at developing journalistic solidarity. • Internews will defend freedom of expression online by supporting a coalition of non-governmental organizations and business associations, to be coordinated by Internews Ukraine. The coalition will work with government agencies to promote dialogue between civil society and government and prevent negative developments related to internet regulation. • Internews Ukraine will run a Digital Security School and provide in-depth mentoring and recommendations on safety and security online for three independent regional outlets. Four “Friday Security Nights” will be run as networking and training events on new trends in digital security for local and national journalists and civic activists on a quarterly basis. • Internews will work with consultants and partners to develop the strategic objectives to achieve the self-reliance of the media sector as part of the task of producing a sustainability plan for independent media watchdogs and civil society organizations once USAID assistance is over. Internews will organize a series of strategic sessions with media organizations and potential investors in independent media sector to come up with the realistic objectives and potential models of sustainability.

PROGRAM PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the Media Program in Ukraine is to strengthen the civically relevant role of media in democratic processes in Ukraine and expand citizens’ access to quality information in order to counter malign influence and support European integration.

The overall expected results (Program Objectives) of the program are:

• High-quality, engaging content increased throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South (Objective 1) • Public demand for quality information increased (Objective 2) • Critical media reforms implemented (Objective 3) • Key media institutions and processes strengthened and sustained (Objective 4).

MPU will be implemented via sub-grants to Ukrainian organizations.

MPU PARTNER APPROACH, ROLES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Subgrantee Categories

Core partners Core partners are organizations that have been working with Internews for the past five to seven years (some longer), have strong track records as service providers, are leaders in their technical areas, and have made strides in developing organizational capacity. Internews is administering five core partner grants, each with a value in the range of approximately $100,000 to $350,000. Core partners will do the following in Year 2 of the Media Program in Ukraine:

1. Internews Ukraine (IUA) will coordinate a group to combat online disinformation and bullying through TrollessUA, manage the virtual reality interactive Propagandarium exhibition, host the Ukraine World group and platform, train Ukrainian journalists in high quality reporting skills by teaching Solutions Journalism and Video Storytelling, contribute to countering malign narratives, administer a small stipends program for content production on reforms, and conduct election-related activities. 2. Detector Media (DM) will monitor and analyze national and regional TV news quality, develop media literacy products for different audiences, and organize national and regional events with media representatives to distribute their media monitoring results and raise the level of Ukrainians’ media literacy. 3. The Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) will implement a media literacy project dedicated to launching new and improving existing media literacy courses at schools of primary, secondary and higher education, raising media literacy teachers’ qualifications, communicating with the Ministry of Education and Sciences of Ukraine on further mandatory inclusion of media literacy into curricula of all school grades. AUP will organize Media Education Schools for Preschool Teachers and Media Camps for older schoolchildren and hold Annual International Media Education and Media Literacy Conferences. 4. Institute of Mass Information (IMI) will monitor the top national and regional online media outlets for content quality, organize national and regional media literacy events, develop and support the Whitelisting concept (whereby ethical media are linked to advertisers that are motivated to place their ads with independent professional media around the country), train women experts in media communication to increase the presence of women in media reports as authorities in their area of expertise, and organize joint professional discussions related to media sector development. 5. Suspilnist Foundation (SF) will implement an internship program for young journalists (Media Mobility Hub) to help leading independent media outlets find new talent, including UA:Pershy in its recruitment of young professionals, and contribute to Internews’ activities to promote and support pivotal governance mechanisms in the media sector. SF will contribute to the debate culture in Ukraine through promoting online debates during election and inter-election periods, as well as by conducting the Online Debates Media Production School to train and educate journalists, moderators and producers in the sphere of debate production. 10

Partners implementing projects, important for media sector development Internews will administer projects with a value of a range of approximately $50,000 to $150,000. This category of partners will do the following in Year 2 of the Media Program in Ukraine:

1. National Public Service Broadcasting Company: UA: Pershy TV channel will produce and broadcast a prime-time political talk show and a HARDtalk-style interview program, and create an entertaining and informative web-series for youth. UA:PBC radio will produce programming on socially important topics. UA:PBC will strengthen its regional affiliates and the joint work of its executive management and supervisory boards, as well as focus on implementing the roadmap established by auditors to improve its management system. 2. Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) will develop new TV, radio and online formats to improve the quality of regional media content production, provide regional media with legal advice, organize schools of media management, convergent media programming and intellectual property rights, as well as organize professional events for the media sector. 3. Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) will conduct monitoring of content quality of regional media that have completed de-statization reform and organize workshops and public discussions on media literacy. 4. Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) will provide training and education for regional reporters, including for the newly formed investigative reporting team of UA:PBC on topics including storytelling, use of open data, legal issues, and new media tools. RPDI will organize an annual All-Ukrainian Investigative Reporting Conference. 5. Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) will advocate for civil society oversight and contributions to any new laws and changes to the media regulatory framework proposed by Ukraine’s new parliament e.g. full and stable forms of financing Ukraine’s public service broadcaster, the independence of the National Council for TV and Radio, and the establishment of pivotal self-governance mechanisms; facilitate the implementation of existing media reforms within the framework of the Reanimation Reforms Package Media Working Group; and organize educational events on legal issues for a variety of media-related and government counterparts. 6. The Information & Press Center (IPC-Simferopol, now located in Kyiv) will produce Crimea and Donbas-focused TV programming, produce content for its investigative reporting websites (http://investigator.org.ua/ and https://court.investigator.org.ua/) and serve as a media hub in Kherson and Genichesk to promote and support high- quality journalism in the South of Ukraine. 7. Hromadske Radio will produce and broadcast radio programs providing explainers about various methods of disinformation and organize talks on media literacy held in different regions around the country. 8. TOM14 investigative reporting agency will launch a new video project engaging citizens in discussions aimed at overcoming social divisions while providing viewers with a deeper understanding of their society. The program will provide a platform to showcase the voices of minority groups that are underrepresented in the media (ethnic, religious, people with disabilities, and others). 11

9. Slidstvo.info investigative journalism organization will launch a new Audience Engagement division to organize events and online audience engagement in Kyiv and in the regions to explore the themes around anti-corruption reporting and include representatives of the authorities, the international community, experts, activists, as well as socially responsible businesses. The events will be moderated discussions where journalists, activists and representatives of the authorities can talk about solutions to the issues uncovered, based on the experience of the film and events around the Slidstvo.info production Two Tractors Outside Rivne. 10. Regional media hubs (Ternopil Press Club, Kharkiv Press Club, the Odesa-based Institute of Political Information) will implement projects at the local level to improve the quality of reliable local news and information, promote critical media consumption, organize inter-regional journalist exchanges, and advise regional print media outlets that have completed the destatization reform, especially for media and journalists based in the East and South. 11. Institute of Political Information (IPI) will launch a new project called “InformerStream” aimed at producing high-quality engaging information and analytical online content to stimulate consumer demand for reliable content and counter disinformation and propaganda. IPI will design a quiz to help citizens in Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv and Kyiv make sense of the mayoral election campaigns during the local elections in 2020 and carry out mentorship in multimedia skills to improve the quality of news that media in the South provide to citizens; 12. Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) will organize the Donbas Media Forum (DMF) and a School of Media Quality for regional journalists, as well as mentor joint content production through the inter-regional journalists’ network DII established in Y1 for 12 newsrooms across Ukraine, including in the East and South.

Partners implementing short-term projects Internews will administer projects with a value of a range of approximately up to $25,000 in a series of open grants competitions throughout the year:

• Media law advocacy coalitions, October 2019 • High-quality coverage of local elections, October 2019 • Engaging content dedicated to health reform and health systems, December 2019 • Innovative media literacy and resilience to disinformation, December 2019 • Engaging content about significant issues for women and girls, March 2020 • Engaging content with participation of people with disabilities and/or other communities whose voices are rarely presented in the media, June 2020 • Media business sustainability networks, June 2020

YEAR 2 ACTIVITIES AND TARGETS

This implementation plan presents the activities and targets to be achieved during Year 2. OBJECTIVE 1: Increase high-quality, engaging content throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South

Expected results for Objective 1: • Quality content on UA:PBC and local affiliates increased • Local coverage of key national reforms and other socially relevant content increased • Audience of socially relevant content increased • Coverage on the 2020 elections that bolsters public debate on policy issues increased • Local capacity for in-depth and investigative reporting using open data sets strengthened • Journalism skills in developing engaging, tailored content improved • New regional mechanisms for collaborative reporting, content exchange, and continuing professional growth developed • Collaborative reporting and content exchange across region increased • Access of residents in Ukraine’s East and South to objective, high-quality, local information expanded Summary of activities to be carried out under Objective 1 to achieve the above expected results: • Ukraine’s biggest challenge in combatting disinformation is a corrupt national media sphere dominated by oligarchs with political interests, with one exception, the national public service broadcaster UA:PBC. Internews will provide a raft of support to UA:PBC and its local affiliates designed to strengthen its brand recognition amongst the public, taking advantage of the success of the USAID-funded Countdown political talk show which garnered an audience of 26.5m Ukrainians in 2019. Praised by media watchdogs and election observers as the most balanced talk show on TV, UA:PBC is building its reputation for high-quality news and informative programming. In Y2 UA:PBC will continue to produce the Countdown as a weekly political talk show, and add new content in the form of a HARDtalk-style interview show and an online drama series aimed at teens, tackling themes of media literacy and disinformation. A major promotional campaign will help raise awareness of UA:PBC’s new independent brand and draw more viewers across all its platforms – national, regional, TV, radio and online. • Internews partners Suspilnist Foundation, Internews Ukraine and Hromadske Radio will work on increasing and improving content production on reforms. Internews Ukraine will provide Solutions Journalism and Video Storytelling trainings for regional journalists, as well as select five independent media outlets for in-depth mentoring on improving content production. Suspilnist Foundation will produce online debates for young people in collaboration with UA:PBC, as well as an Online Debates Media Production School. Hromadske Radio will produce a series of programs focusing on socially important topics related to reforms and a new video blog by leading Ukrainian journalist Andriy Kulykov. Throughout Y2 Internews will launch competitions for grants to produce high-quality engaging content – October

2019 on local elections, December 2019 on health and decentralization, March 2020 on significant issues for women and girls, and June 2020 to produce content with the participation of people with disabilities and/or other communities whose voices are rarely presented in the media. • The media play a vital role in keeping government and people in power accountable through investigative reporting. Internews will support UA:PBC’s new investigative reporting team through documentaries that will draw on talent from UA:PBC’s regional affiliates, the Information and Press Center will focus on joint investigations with journalists in Ukraine’s South, the Regional Press Development Institute will organize its major annual conference for investigative reporters and provide new training events and support for reporters around the country, and Slidstvo.info (the Ukrainian partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) will organize 12 events to facilitate citizen engagement around the issues they uncover and draw responsible officials into constructive conversations about how to achieve progress in combatting corruption. • Ukraine’s media need mentoring as well as investment to improve the quality of their content production. To that end, Suspilnist Foundation will continue to work on its Media Incubator, a program of training for young journalism students with internships provided at major media through its Media Mobility Hub. Suspilnist will launch a new national initiative called Open Media Stories for inter-regional exchanges with a raft of training on new media start-ups, financial viability, digital security culture and combatting disinformation. Training and internship opportunities will be provided through Suspilnist Foundation’s Young Reporters Pool, an annual conference of the Media Interns Association and two Schools of Strategic Communication and Anti-Fakes. The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) will expand its Content Generator Program and work on reducing piracy with an improved online marketplace for regional media to share content, the development of original engaging formats for audio and video content, the Honor of Profession professional journalism competition, a Ukrainian Media E-School and a School of Advanced Convergent Media Programming. The Kharkiv Press Club will continue to facilitate professional exchanges between journalists around Ukraine by organizing two press tours for journalists from at least 17 regions (half from the East and South). Internews Ukraine will provide digital safety audits for five selected regional media companies, and Detector Media will run a course for journalists called Quality Media Against Propaganda and Manipulation. The Academy of Ukrainian Press will run two training events for regional university journalism students in professional standards, verifying information, and identifying fakes. • The Media Program in Ukraine has a focus on regions in the East and South of Ukraine. The Institute of Mass Information will produce media monitoring data on media coverage of the reform process and coverage of Crimea, focusing on Mykolayiv, Odesa, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv. The Information and Press Center is continuing to run two new Media Hubs to support quality journalism in the South located in Genichesk and Kherson. Its flagship “National Security Issue” TV and online show will focus on important issues affecting people living in the East and South. The Donetsk Institute of Information organizes an annual Donbas Media Forum and is supporting a network of journalists in the East to improve the quality and audience reach of their content. The Institute of Political Information acts as a 14

media hub in Odesa and will run a South Ukraine Media Training program providing content production support. The Kharkiv Press Club is introducing internships for journalism students to help students develop training events that will draw in young journalists, carry out media events with online broadcasts, and produce news reports to be shared with 30 local media partners in the East. 1.1. Support for UA:PBC and local affiliates

DO1 •Corruption Reduced in Target Sectors •Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Context and Lessons Learned from Y1 Ukraine’s national public service broadcasting company (UA:PBC) experienced a rocky period in 2018-2019 starting with a Cabinet of Ministers decision in late 2018 to reduce funding by nearly 50% from UA:PBC’s legally-mandated allowance, and beginning the new year in 2019 with a Supervisory Board decision to dismiss the head of UA:PBC’s Executive Management Board, Zurab Alasania. When Alasania won his case in court for wrongful dismissal in June 2019, the presidential elections had changed the political landscape substantially, and the Supervisory Board decided to reinstate Alasania rather than appeal the court’s decision. USAID’s Media Program in Ukraine provided a grant to UA:PBC directly for the first time, to manage the production of its new prime time political talk show Countdown, make progress with the auditors’ roadmap for internal organizational reform, and provide support for the supervisory board’s work. Countdown was a ratings and critical success – the show gathered around 26.5m views and media watchdog Detector Media called it the most balanced political show on TV during the presidential and parliamentary elections. This proved that UA:PBC could produce a high ratings show and attract audiences with informative, trustworthy content. In Year 2 Internews plans to further invest in UA:PBC’s quality programming, continuing to support Countdown and other new formats to include a HARDtalk-style interview show led by a well-known Ukrainian journalist and a web-series aimed at teens to pass on media literacy concepts in an entertaining format. Internews Media Program partners CEDEM, IMI, DM and others will also work on advocacy to promote the future financial stability of UA:PBC by codifying a new model of financing. The Media Program’s support to UA:PBC will include an investment in the strengthening of the Supervisory Board and improvement of its relationship with the Executive Management Board. Implementing Partner

• UA:PBC (National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine) Partner Activities and Steps UA:PBC Countdown show: UA:PBC will carry on producing this prime time political talk show covering crucial social and political issues with guest lineups made up of politicians,

experts, and public opinion leaders in a weekly 90-minute format. The show fills a gap in balanced political analysis on national TV, as the alternate shows on commercial national channels have all been criticized as biased and selective in whom they invite. This is particularly crucial during an election year (see Activity 1.3 below), and the 2020 local elections are more significant than ever because of the decentralization reform. As a flagship prime time politics show, it provides an important public service, increases UA:PBC’s appeal to viewers, and builds demand for better quality, objective content. The show will also help resolve the problem of how to present politicians’ points of view, and tackle the impression in parliament that UA:PBC does not provide parties and politicians with sufficient opportunities to express their views to the public. This will also improve the chances of successful advocacy to parliamentarians on why UA:PBC should receive its full funding according to the current legislation, and that its independence from political interference needs to be protected. UA:PBC HARDtalk show: UA:PBC will produce a HARDtalk-style political program of in- depth interviews with tough questions, covering sensitive topics. The format was made popular by the BBC’s HARDtalk and the key to its success is not just the selection of interesting opinion leaders, politicians, writers and well-known people to interview, but the reputation and tenacity of the interviewer. UA:PBC is in talks with several top candidates to lead the show. UA:Radio: UA:PBC’s national radio station Suspilne has gone from strength to strength, and is one of the most popular talk radio stations in the country. Year 2 support to Suspilne will ensure more content from the regional branches for news and other programming, as well as marketing and promotion. Suspilne will produce radio documentaries about the ongoing reforms at the local level as well as organize live streams from important local events using equipment that was bought with USAID’s Media Program funds in Year 1. Major Promotion Campaign: Various smaller efforts have been made already but the lack of public awareness of the change to public service broadcasting from state broadcasting is still manifest. Many people do not know what public service broadcasting is or what kind of a “different” service it provides in comparison to the other national broadcasters. UA:PBC has long identified the need to improve its brand recognition and build loyal audiences through a nationwide promotion campaign. Financial and other teething problems meant that a delay was required while UA:PBC developed high-quality programming to drive new audiences towards. With support from USAID’s Media Program for a successful prime time political talk show, and good notices from media watchdogs and election observers about the quality of its news programming, Year 2 is the right time to widely promote the new brand. UA:PBC hired Serhiy Kryvosheia in 2019, a highly regarded media market expert on creative strategies and brand promotion, so they have in-house expertise to help them design the best approaches across all platforms. Teen Drama Web Series: Internews’ annual media consumption survey showed a dramatic 11% drop in television use as a source of information down to 66% in 2019 from 77% in 2018. The same period saw a significant rise in the number of people who use social media as their primary source of information – from 53% in 2018 to 68% in 2019. To address the fact that most younger people consume media online, UA:PBC will produce an online drama like the US series Veronica Mars with elements of a detective story, centering on a hero who acts

like an investigative reporter, sifting information using media literacy and critical thinking techniques, to resolve her own and other children’s problems. This show will be only available online to reach younger audiences that do not tend to consume TV but like to watch video on devices. Twelve episodes of the series are planned to be broadcast from March to May 2020. Support for the Supervisory Board and achievement of UA:PBC organizational milestones: The professionalism and independence of the Supervisory Board, and its ability to interact effectively with the Executive Management Board, are key to the success of UA:PBC in its transition from state to public service broadcaster. Internews will provide funding for support for the Supervisory Board to enable it to adequately respond to legal issues and complaints, learn conflict resolution skills, and identify its specific responsibilities versus those to be undertaken by the Executive Management Board. In addition, the Media Program will finance consultancy to aid with the achievement of UA:PBC’s organizational milestones identified under the audit carried out by Ernst&Young (financed by SIDA) in 2018. See Activity 3.1.1 for more details. Quantitative or qualitative targets 30 episodes of the Countdown political talk show and 30 episodes of the HARDtalk show will be produced and broadcast on UA: PBC, that will cover up to 8 million people. The online teen media literacy drama will have 12 episodes and reach around up to 1 million people. Qualitative: UA:PBC programming leads to tangible real world outcomes (e.g. audience members are able to estimate the political situation). Timeline for implementation UA:PBC will broadcast the political talk shows during autumn and spring TV seasons (October 2019 – September 2020). The HARDtalk show will be broadcast from November to December 2019 and from February to June 2020. The Major Promotion Campaign will begin in January and finish in September 2020. The Teen Drama web series will be broadcast online between March and May 2020. Support for the Supervisory Board and milestones will be carried out throughout October 2019 to September 2020. 1.2. Increasing and improving content production on reforms

DO1 •Corruption Reduced in Target Sectors •Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Implementing Partners

• Internews Ukraine (IUA) • Hromadske Radio (HR) • Small grantees to be selected competitively throughout Y2

Partner Activities and Steps

Solutions Journalism training in how to cover reforms: Internews Ukraine will continue a program that trains journalists around the country in improving their knowledge of the context and rollout of Ukraine’s reforms process, as well as in the concept of “solutions journalism.” IUA carried out the first Solutions Journalism training in Ukraine in Y1, developing a curriculum together with Internews based on some of the concepts elaborated by the Solutions Journalism Network. The method encourages journalists to identify and report on an issue, but not to stop there, and make sure to interview responsible local officials as well as members of the public and civic activists trying to alleviate or resolve the problem. If possible, journalists should research whether similar problems have been addressed elsewhere, to see if solutions can be imported from other communities. IUA will hold two trainings for regional journalists (30 trainees in total) and provide mentorship and stipends after the trainings. IUA will run a small stipends program, providing 60 stipends for journalists from regional media outlets to produce material about issues affecting local communities based on the Solutions Journalism approach. The goal is to contribute to citizens’ understanding of reforms, encourage the media to identify roadblocks and the people trying to overcome them, and increase the level of community engagement related to the reform process. IUA will cooperate in the implementation of this activity with key experts from USAID projects promoting and communicating reforms in Ukraine, e.g. the Support to Anti- Corruption Champion Institutions (SACCI), Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (ENGAGE), and Nove Pravosuddya Justice Sector Reform programs, among others. In-depth newsroom quality support: IUA will announce an open call for independent regional media companies with a focus on the East and South and select five regional media outlets on a competitive basis to receive a programmatic audit, long-term mentorship and support to develop a strategy for content production. The selected media outlets will also receive stipends for their journalists to produce a series of media content (10 materials each – 50 materials in total) on socially important topics. The selected media outlets will receive up to 100 remote mentoring consultations on journalistic standards and techniques in media production. With a view to enhancing the media production capacities of local media outlets, IUA will organize two trainings on video storytelling for 20 participants each representing regional media. Ukraine World: Ukraine World is a topical smart news and information resource focusing on Ukrainian issues which brings together over 260 experts and journalists from Ukraine and around the world. As well as an information resource and a communication network, Ukraine World provides high-quality analysis about the most important developments in Ukraine and distributes them to key influencers. Internews Ukraine will produce content in both English and Ukrainian targeting international and local audiences with relevant content on critical 18

issues affecting the country. IUA will be responsible for running Ukraine World, producing articles, and distributing them on the UW website and promoting them through social networks. To help Ukraine World further develop its network of expert contributors, IUA will hold a panel discussion at the annual Kyiv Security Forum with the participation of international experts (e.g. Robert van der Noordaa, Journalist from the Netherlands, co-author of research about the Russian “Troll Factory,” Giedrius Sakalauskas, Director of “Res Publica” civic resilience center in Lithuania) to discuss the current situation with the media coverage of Ukraine for international audiences and informational threats caused by Kremlin propaganda. Responsible Leadership Online Debates: Suspilnist Foundation will contribute to the debate culture in Ukraine by promoting online debates based on the experience of previous years in terms of election and inter-election periods. SF will produce a digital media talk show for online broadcasting of 20 debates programs in cooperation with UA:PBC. SF will involve young regional journalists in conducting debate programs that will provide high- quality content on socially important issues regarding key reforms (anti-corruption, decentralization, health care, pensions, energy saving, education etc.). In order to develop an improved debate culture in Ukraine, SF will conduct an Online Debates Media Production School aimed at training and educating journalists, moderators and producers in the specifics of debate production. SF will also assist its partners in organizing the debate programs and platforms for discussions in the regions and in Kyiv, together with UA:PBC. Hromadske Radio will produce and broadcast ten 50-minute radio talk shows that will be focused on socially important topics related to reforms in the following sectors: healthcare, decentralization, police, land, pension, military, municipal and other. Radio show guests (activists, politicians, central and municipal authorities’ representatives, experts, etc.) will explain the goals and specificities of the reform process and prospects for the future. Hromadske Radio will produce and share ten new opinion video blogs by Andriy Kulykov, head of the Hromadske Radio board. Kulykov is a well-known Ukrainian journalist and highly respected moderator of political TV and radio talk shows. Kulykov will explain current events in a series of blog shows dedicated to key reforms, elections, political context, media literacy, etc. Qualitative and quantitative indicators

Ukraine World will produce 5 short videos, 5 video-explainers, 40 articles in English (10 materials translated into Russian and published on info-resources in post-Soviet countries), 10 infographics, 5 audio-podcasts, 50 teasers for SMM promotion; achieve 8,000 subscribers on FB and 2,000 on Twitter, 350 Google group subscribers; and reach an estimated audience of 900-1,100 people per article. SF will produce 20 live-streamed online youth debate shows with a total of approximately 250,000 viewers, and will teach 30 journalists, moderators and producers to organize online debates. HR will produce 10 50-minute radio talk shows on key reforms and 10 episodes of a new opinion video blog by Andriy Kulykov. 19

Timeline

IUA will produce content for Ukraine World during October 2019 – September 2020 and will hold a panel at the Kyiv Security Forum in April 2020. Solutions Journalism trainings and stipends support will be implemented from November 2019 – April 2020. In-depth newsroom quality support will be implemented from October 2019 till September 2020.

SF will hold its online debates programs in October – December 2019 and February – April 2020. SF’s Online Debates Media Production School will be held in June – July 2020.

HR will produce its radio talk shows and opinion blogs from September 2019 – November 2019. 1.3. Improving elections coverage

DO1 •Corruption Reduced in Target Sectors •Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Implementing Partners

• UA:PBC • CEDEM • Hromadske Radio • Detector Media • Institute for Political Information (IPI, Odesa) • Kharkiv Press Club (KPC) • Ternopil Press Club (TPC) Partner Activities and Steps

Training for UA:PBC regional branches on covering elections and media law: The year 2020 will mark an important year for local elections in Ukraine. As the 2019 parliamentary and presidential campaigns have shown, one of the key problems for media is the absence of standards regarding impartiality and balance when it comes to elections coverage, as well as a lack of general knowledge about legislative provisions that regulate elections processes overall, and media reporting in particular. In order to ensure transparent and objective coverage of local elections in the regions and strengthen journalists´ knowledge in this sphere, Internews´ partner the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) will hold four trainings for journalists of the regional branches of UA:PBC on legislative aspects of elections coverage and media law. Special attention will be paid to the rules pertaining to local elections.

Online voter education: Ukraine’s leading media watchdog Detector Media relaunched its previously successful online resource for voters – https://vybory.detector.media – with information and infographics on the 2019 elections, focusing on media literacy and critical thinking to help voters find trustworthy sources of information about the parties, candidates and their platforms during Year 1. In Year 2 DM will publish stories about how media are

doing regarding local elections coverage over a three-month period in the run-up to and immediately after the local elections. Hromadske Radio talk shows covering political developments around elections: Hromadske Radio will design and produce nine talk shows covering parliamentary developments following the 2019 elections. Hromadske Radio will produce the political talk show and has agreed to broadcast via Hromadske TV to increase audiences across multiple platforms (radio, online and TV). Andriy Kulykov will moderate. The talk show team will invite political party representatives, political analysts, and independent experts to the studio. Guests will comment on the most recent developments and political statements and explain their political platforms and positions on urgent social issues. The talk show will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, seeking to encourage audience feedback during the show. The show will be broadcast during October-December 2019. The Institute of Political Information (IPI) created launched “iVote” – an educational online quiz – prior to the presidential election in March 2019. It was developed for web-browsers and mobile devices, and reached more than 100,000 unique users. Readers visited 500,000 pages of content about the candidates’ programs. The iVote Quiz was updated and launched for the parliamentary elections with a chat-bot quiz “I_Vote_bot” launched for young people on Telegram. In 2020, IPI will update the “iVote” quiz, this time aimed at providing objective information about the candidates for mayor in local elections in Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv and Kyiv.

Local election coverage in Kharkiv: Kharkiv Press Club will organize discussions for local media during the local election campaign, providing election coverage from a number of polling stations in Kharkiv region. KPC will publish regular updates on Facebook, the KPC website, and YouTube for the benefit of other Kharkiv-based media. After the end of the election process KPC will hold a final press conference summarizing the Election Day news.

Ternopil Press Club will provide information and education services: TPC will increase the media literacy of citizens and encourage active participation in the election process by organizing two media literacy events, providing election coverage from a number of polling stations in Ternopil region, highlighting electoral violations and news throughout the day, and conducting three roundtable discussions during the election period with local experts, politicians and journalists. TPC will invite the participation of journalists, representatives of election headquarters, law enforcement agencies, public organizations, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine and international observers. These events will be broadcasted on TPC and local partner media’s online platforms. After the end of the election process, TPC will hold a final press conference to wrap up the main news of Election Day. Quantitative and qualitative indicators CEDEM will organize four trainings for 40 journalists of the regional branches of the public service broadcaster UA:PBC on legislative aspects of elections coverage and media law. Hromadske Radio will produce 10 radio talk shows covering parliamentary developments following the 2019 elections.

Kharkiv Press Club will run three roundtable discussions and a final press conference on the elections. TPC will conduct three roundtable discussions during the election period, and a final press conference to wrap up the main news of Election Day. Timeline CEDEM will hold its trainings for UA:PBC from February – June 2020 HR will produce its radio talk shows from July – November 2019. Ternopil Press Club will hold briefings tentatively (pending announcement of election date) from July-October 2020. Kharkiv Press Club will run three roundtable discussions and its final press conference from July-October 2020. IPI will launch the iVote quiz from September-October 2020 1.4. Supporting investigative journalism

DO1 •Corruption Reduced in Target Sectors •Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Implementing partners • UA:PBC • Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) • Information and Press Center (IPC) • Slidstvo.info Partner Activities and Steps UA:PBC Investigations: Up to now, UA:PBC in part strengthened its reputation for editorial independence by broadcasting investigative reporting shows produced by external teams, e.g. Slidstvo.info’s Panama Papers, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes, and Denis Bigus’ Nashi Groshi (Our Money). While this practice will continue, in 2019, Ukraine’s national public broadcaster UA:PBC established its own division of investigative journalism headed by the experienced investigative journalist Inna Biletska, who has taken on the role of supervising investigative reporting to be produced by UA:PBC regional branches. The main task of the division is to build an in-house professional investigative team, implement the best investigation practices and technologies and broadcast an in-house UA:PBC regular investigation program in 2021. The first stage is to produce specific investigative reports about problems of national importance (e.g. about the situation in the conflict zone). The Media Program will support UA:PBC’s first investigative reporting programs between 2019-2020 to help consolidate their quality and public reputation. The UA:PBC investigative

team plans to produce four 52-minute special investigation documentaries per year (following the concepts of CBS’ 60 Minutes or BBC’s Panorama). Investigative TV and online content: The Information and Press Center (IPC) fills an important gap in providing reliable information about issues affecting citizens in Crimea, and in the South and East of Ukraine. IPC will engage journalists from the South and East to conduct joint investigations on the issues important to people in Crimea, and in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. Internews will support IPC to produce 38 episodes (four programs per month) of its weekly flagship analytical TV show “The National Security Issue.” (See Activity 1.6 for more information on the show.) 12 episodes will be investigative reporting pieces which will also be formatted into multimedia stories to be published on the IPC’s portal Center for Journalist Investigations. The show will be adapted for web and social media networks. IPC’s newly-launched special project Bureau for Judicial Information will be a source of reliable information about court cases relating to Crimea, claims of Ukraine against Russia in the international courts, judicial reform in Ukraine, and illegal prosecution of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories. The Bureau for Judicial Information will increase its content production as well as adapt it for social media networks, including the production of podcasts for Hromadske Radio’s website. Investigative reporting, training and networking: Internews will support the Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) to carry out its annual networking conference in Kyiv for investigative reporters in December 2019. The event brings together 200 journalists and provides a unique opportunity for professionals to learn about the latest relevant tech and forge new collaborations with peers. RPDI will provide 20 competitively selected stipends to help investigative reporters work on new stories. RPDI will provide fact-checking support and quality control for the stipendees, publish unique training materials on its online resource center for investigative reporters, and provide two 9-day trainings on different aspects of investigation reporting work for the new investigative reporting team at UA:PBC (24 people). Slidstvo.info audience engagement with investigative reporting: One of Ukraine’s leading investigative reporting teams (a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project - OCCRP), Slidstvo.info will launch a new Audience Engagement division to organize events and online audience engagement in Kyiv and in the regions to explore the themes around anti-corruption reporting and include representatives of the authorities, the international community, experts, activists, as well as socially responsible businesses. The events will be moderated discussions where journalists, activists and representatives of the authorities can talk about solutions to the issues uncovered, based on the experience of the film and event around the Slidstvo.info production Two Tractors Outside Rivne. Slidstvo.info teamed up with the Rivne-based investigative reporting group 4Vlada and OCCRP, identified the thieves of the two missing tractors, and uncovered the fact that local police officers took bribes from the perpetrators to hinder the investigation. Afterwards Slidstvo.info organized a closed viewing for selected guests, including the farmers whose tractors were stolen, and representatives of the National Police, who engaged in a constructive discussion about justice for the farmers, and how to combat similar types of corruption elsewhere in the country. Qualitative or quantitative targets UA:PBC`s investigative reporting unit will produce three investigative documentaries.

IPC will produce 38 TV shows and 12 investigative journalism pieces to be shown on Chornomorska TV, which has an estimated audience of 500,000 viewers per show. 200 Ukrainian journalists will attend RPDI’s national conference. RPDI will train 72 investigative reporters and give out 20 stipends (competition based) and provide direct support to independent investigative centers for the production of 20 stories. RPDI estimates the combined approximate audience of published materials will be 100,000 viewers. Slidstvo.info will organize six private and six public events in Kyiv and the regions for between 30-50 people each. Timeline UA:PBC will hire journalists in the central UA:PBC department and mentor them during October-December 2019 and produce 3 investigative films during Year 2 (till September 2020). IPC’s investigative reporting pieces will be shown weekly between October 2019 and September 2020. Slidstvo.info will organize approximately one event per month from October 2019 to September 2020. 1.5. Strengthening professional development and cross-regional linkages • Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Implementing partners:

• Internews-Ukraine (IUA) • Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) • Suspilnist Foundation (SF) • Kharkiv Press Club (KPC) • Ternopil Press Club (TPC) • Detector Media (DM) • Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) Partner Activities and Steps Media Incubator: Suspilnist Foundation will continue a program of online and offline training for young journalists and students of journalism faculties, support for new media start-ups, and internships for young reporters under the umbrella of a Media Mobility Hub. Four internship sessions will be organized for a total of 60 interns from the regions and Kyiv. A special focus will be on encouraging interns from the south and east of Ukraine to apply, to encourage an increase in skilled journalists able to produce interesting high-quality content in these parts of the country. The internships are designed to improve cooperation between a new generation of journalists and major media companies. Year 2 of SF’s Media Incubator will see the launch of the national media initiative “Open Media Stories,” where a series of inter-regional exchanges for 20 young journalists will be

conducted along with the trainings on the creation of new media start-ups, financial viability, media business management, digital security culture, storytelling, overcoming disinformation and manipulative influences, content monetization and multimedia design. These activities will contribute to media innovations and help to share experiences between young journalists, develop ideas and concepts for the media market through a partnership dialogue at the national and regional levels, as well as create high-quality media content to enhance confidence in the media, in particular in UA:PBC. In addition, Suspilnist Foundation will support the Young Reporters Pool, based on previous experience working with Ukrainska Pravda and Center UA. Suspilnist Foundation plans to invite young journalists to work with Ukrayinska Pravda: UP will define the tasks and 24 reporters from different regions will develop them and get their media stories published at pravda.com.ua. Finally, SF will hold an annual conference of the Media Interns Association in Kyiv with the participation of more than 100 young journalists, representatives of profile organizations and top managers of the leading Ukrainian media companies, as well as the interns of the summer session of “Media Mobility Hub” and regional participants of previous internships (selected on a competitive basis). This event will also promote cooperation and networking among the graduates of journalism faculties and the country’s major media outlets. SF will organize two training schools – the School of Strategic Communications and Anti-Fakes for young regional journalists on countering disinformation and fake news. These schools will be conducted by leading Ukrainian journalists and specialists in the sector of strategic communications and will help participants learn how to make the right editorial decisions during real journalistic work. High-Quality Content Generator Program and Platform: The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) will use lessons learned to expand their newly created and improved online marketplace – a Content Generator program and content sharing platform (Сontent Fund) where regional media can both share open content (such as that produced with Media Program support) and promote their commercial content to other media around the country (as a method of diversifying their sources of income and strengthening their sustainability). Within the Generator program, IAB runs a Formats Lab and has an expert creative team to produce novel, original, relevant, entertaining formats, and use focus groups to test the viability of new ideas. The creative expert team will develop seven innovative, original, audience-friendly audio and video content formats, five to be developed for regional and local TV and radio companies, and two specifically for the National Public Broadcasting Company’s radio stations. Each format will focus on one of the following topics: raising awareness about reforms, mobilizing communities, and increasing critical thinking about information consumption. Focus groups will be conducted to study the viability of the formats. IAB will administer a small stipends program for broadcasters to create at least 75 hours of innovative content based on the developed formats. Upon receiving stipends, the broadcasters’ teams will go through training programs developed specifically for them to help them learn how to properly implement the formats, considering creative and technical issues, how to arrange effective promotional campaigns, and how to monetize the content they produce involving non-political advertisers. IAB Formats Lab and Ukrainian Media E- School’s (UMES) experts will mentor the broadcasters’ teams at all stages of content production, promo campaigns, proposal preparation, and presentations for potential advertisers. 25

Content Fund: IAB will focus on filling the online resource created during the first year of project implementation with a variety of content, as well as increasing the number of its regular users to at least 100 people. The amount of content on the platform is planned to increase from 2,500 to 5,000 hours for regional TV and radio companies. Starting from the second year, platform users will start paying small fees, which will be the first step towards Content Fund’s self-reliance. “Honor of Profession” professional journalism competition: IAB will organize the 11th contest of professional journalism called “Honor of Profession” for the best work of Ukrainian media and journalists from the previous year. The contest is a competition for the best work in various categories, including investigative reporting, and winners are awarded at a televised ceremony. The contest encourages high-quality production and engaging content by rewarding journalists and media companies with professional accolades and national media coverage. In order to increase the popularity of the contest and attract more attention to it in 2020, the project team will start negotiations with a number of national TV channels to identify the TV channel that will become the general television partner of the contest and will broadcast the TV version of the final awards ceremony. The main selection criteria will be the guarantee of non-interference in the course of the contest, willingness to provide prime time for TV version broadcasting, and ability to ensure an audience of at least 600,000 people. A multimedia strategy for promoting the contest at all its stages will be developed together with the television partner. At least 300 journalists will participate in the “Honor of Profession” contest, and up to 300 people will attend the ceremony. Ukrainian Media E-school: Independent Association of Broadcasters’ Ukrainian Media E- School will offer a variety of courses, depending on the needs of applicants, ranging from human resource management to digital branding. The School of media management is a four-month training course for 15 directors and middle managers on how to create and manage a successful media company that can produce and efficiently monetize high-quality content. In particular, the school will focus on strategy as a tool for top managers, the role of top managers in media business, strategic media trends, strategic planning, effective business models, SWOT analysis, market assessment, key media business performance indicators, audience segmentation, target audience analysis and research methods, PR strategies and instruments, content production and promotion, corporate finance, basic financial reporting models, budgeting, company cost optimization, effective leadership and management, organizational charts, job descriptions, time management, delegation, team-building, corporate culture, etc. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to work with mentors. A School of Advanced Convergent Media Programming will gather 15 representatives of regional TV and radio companies, which will enable them to develop multimedia programming strategies for their TV channels and radio stations based on high-quality content and meet the needs of their audience. In particular, the school will focus on the philosophy of TV programming, the future of TV worldwide and in Ukraine, target audiences and their profiles, branding, TV and radio listing, TV and radio formats, promo campaigns, the principles of content production, content maps, content plans, digital in TV and radio programming, media research as the basis of TV listing, program director's interaction with marketers, finance managers, producers, and PR managers, as well as formation and motivation of creative teams.

The third school training will focus on how to search for and use content legally. The vast majority of regional TV and radio companies, including UA:PBC branches, habitually use pirated music, photos and videos to create their own content. This is a major obstacle for their transition to multimedia convergent programming, using digital platforms and content sharing. To address this problem, IAB will host three one-day trainings for program directors and editors during which 40 participants will find out about available free content resources, ways to use cost-effective paid content libraries and rules for obtaining rights to copyright content of other broadcasters. Cross-Regional Linkages Through Press Tours: Kharkiv Press Club will cooperate with 10 press clubs around the country to run five two-day press tours for journalists, reaching 60 journalists from 17 regions (at least half from the East and South). The trips will facilitate dialogue and collaboration between journalists working in different regions of the country. As a requirement of participation, journalists selected for the exchange will produce content based on their experiences in other parts of the country following the trip which will be published or broadcast by their home and other collaborating media, as well as via social networks. Content produced by the participants of the press tours will promote local civil society projects, anti-corruption initiatives, and agents of change in local communities, and be a resource for local media to inform a wider public about locally relevant information in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk. KPC will also continue to develop and broaden the MediaPool Facebook group to encourage participants to keep in touch and continue to reach out when they have queries about what is happening in other parts of the country. The MediaPool FB group was created by Kharkiv Press Club in 2016 to facilitate information sharing between local journalists who participated in previous press tours. It remains an active platform for sharing content between press club members and alumni of the press tours and has been a useful tool for sharing stories about what is happening in other parts of the country. East-West Ukraine School of Practical Journalism and Media Literacy: Kharkiv Press Club will cooperate with Ternopil Press Club, sharing training materials and methodologies, to offer a monthly training opportunity for 20-25 journalists at each Press Club entitled “School of Practical Journalism and Media Literacy.” Modules for working journalists, editors, and bloggers will tackle basic journalism ethics and standards, as well as understanding the key elements of media literacy (disinformation, verification, digital security). KPC will offer weekly lectures with well-known journalists and experts for journalists from Kharkiv oblast. These lectures will also be open to the public as part of four training sessions that will be organized for journalists from Donetsk and Luhansk oblast. Trainings within the scope of the “School of Practical Journalism and Media Literacy” will include the Fundamentals of Media Literacy, Legal Aspects of the Activities of a Multimedia Journalist, The Art of Text and Video Storytelling, and Tools and Features of Video Content in the Preparation of News, among others. KPC and TPC will exchange trainers and training materials. Digital Security School. Internews Ukraine will provide a series of digital security consultations (audits resulting in recommendations) for five selected media outlets in the regions. Digital Security experts will develop a series of guidelines for each media outlet.

The selected media outlets will receive: a professional digital audit (digital security experts will help to clarify online threats and better understand the risks and vulnerabilities of the organization); a list of relevant recommendations and guidelines and a detailed description of how to apply all the recommendations; in-depth and long-term expert support and the opportunity to implement measures in order to enhance both organizational and individual security for the media representatives; Qualitative Media Against Propaganda and Manipulation training course: Detector Media will launch a course called “Qualitative Media Against Propaganda and Manipulation” for 12 Ukrainian journalists and bloggers. A special focus will be on selecting journalists from Eastern and Southern Ukraine. This course will provide its participants with a set of applied knowledge and practical skills that can help bloggers, media activists, citizen journalists and/or freelance journalists adhere to professional standards, verify information, identify and disclaim fakes, use critical thinking, create high-quality modern content in various text and video formats, promote content in social networks, build audiences and their own personal brand, withstand cyberattacks, editorial pressure, and censorship and learn how to work in dangerous conditions. Well-known and reputable experts like Otar Dovzhenko and Ihor Kulias will be the trainers. DM will also partner with IMI and Texty.org.ua for the preparation of the course. Media Laboratories: The Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) will organize trainings for regional university journalism students to raise their knowledge of professional media standards and expand their competencies as media practitioners. Under the guidance of high- quality trainers, young journalists will learn how to differentiate between quality media products and fakes/disinformation, and how to produce useful stories for citizens.

Qualitative and quantitative indicators Suspilnist Foundation will train 60 journalism interns form different regions of Ukraine in the framework of Media Mobility Hubs; 20 young journalists will participate under the Open Media Stories National Initiative. 120 young journalists will participate in the Annual Conference of Media Interns Association. SF will train 60 journalists within the School of Strategic Communications and Anti-Fakes. IAB will produce seven innovative formats. Five of them will be developed for regional and local TV and radio companies, and two will be developed specifically for the National Public Broadcasting Company’s radio stations. The total amount of original content produced will be no less than 75 hours. Honor of Profession will include at least 300 nominees in the contest, with at least 300 people expected to attend the final ceremony. The expected TV audience is about 600,000 viewers. Three IAB E-Schools will have a total of 70 participants. An expected 40% of education program participants will improve their skills of media management, programming, positioning, and production process organization as well as their capacities to implement effective digital strategies and tackle copyright issues.

KPC estimates 100 publications will result from the press tours. The expected audience is 16 million from 17 regions of Ukraine. KPC will organize weekly lectures by well-known journalists or experts for 10-15 journalists from Kharkiv oblast (36 events in total). The lectures will be open to the public. KPC and TPC will organize eight 1-2 day trainings for 25 journalists from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Sumy oblasts on video storytelling, storytelling, social networks, etc. Participating journalists will produce at least 30 pieces of good quality content. TPC and KPC expect that improved content quality by local media participating in the training will lead to increases in online audiences and real-world impact (e.g. an article highlighting potholes leads to local authorities fixing the road). Ternopil Press Club will organize eight monthly topical trainings and weekly lectures (40 lectures total) for 25 journalists (including young video operators from TV channels). All 25 journalists will have internships at Ternopil Media Center. Participants will be supervised by TPC coaches and journalists to produce 100 pieces of high-quality content (text and video). IUA will prepare 10 educational videos and 10 educational articles on the principles of digital security for journalists and media consumers that will be published on FB and up to 12 national (e.g. Novoe Vremya, Ukrpravda) and regional media. DM will train 12 journalists from all over Ukraine within four 3-day modules. AUP will train 40 journalism students within 2 Media Laboratories.

Timeline The High-Quality Content Generator Program will run continuously from October 2019 - September 2020; Content will be produced between October 2019 – September 2020. Ukrainian Media E-Schools will be held from October 2019 – March 2020, and March - September 2020. The Honor of Profession Contest will be held – May 2020. Three Media Mobility Hubs will be held from October 2019 – July 2020. SF will hold The School of Strategic Communication and Anti-Fakes in May–July 2020. Annual Conference of Media Interns Association will be held in August 2020. The series of interregional exchanges for Young Journalists “Open Media Stories” will be held in August 2020. DM will announce the course and journalists in October 2019 – June 2020. AUP’s “Media Laboratories” for regional university students of journalism will be held in November 2019 – March 2020. KPC and TPC will hold the East-West Ukraine School of Practical Journalism and Media Literacy activities in October 2019 – September 2020

1.6. Emphasizing interventions in the East and South •Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Implementing Partners • Information and Press Center (IPC) • Institute of Political Information (IPI, Odesa) • Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) • Institute of Mass Information (IMI) • Kharkiv Press Club (KPC) • Partnership with the National Democratic Institute (NDI)

Partner Activities and Steps Research into the quality of media news and information about Ukraine’s reforms, and coverage of Crimea-related issues: The respected media analysis research center Institute for Mass Information (IMI) will carry out media monitoring and research focusing on how media in the East and South are covering Ukraine’s reform process and how they cover events in Crimea. IMI will monitor five media from each of the regions monitored (Mykolayiv, Odesa, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv). IMI will also prepare semi-annual research of the content of six of the highest-profile online media in the occupied territories in the East of Ukraine, to assess what kind of information is provided to the local population, the level of fakes, hate speech, and disinformation. IMI will also do special semi-annual analysis into how the top 20 Ukrainian online media report about Crimea. This will also include an analysis of which Ukrainian media are accessible to Crimeans on the peninsula, and what kind of information they provide. This research will be used to inform training and content production activities related to improving access and quality of news and information provided to citizens in the East and South. IMI will publish its research in a user-friendly format to help improve training and content production activities carried out by other NGOs in Ukraine. Media hubs to support quality journalism in the South: The Information and Press Center’s (IPC) newly-launched media hubs in Kherson and Genichesk will continue to serve as platforms (similar to press clubs) for local journalists and media outlets in the South; provide support and assistance; hold regular professional development events for media, highlighting the reform agenda and featuring expert speakers recommended by USAID and other donor programs; serve as a venue for media events for public organizations to boost public discussions with local authorities; support the creation of multimedia content that can be shared; and run a training program for journalists and bloggers focused on investigative journalism and solutions journalism approaches. TV news show focusing on the South and East: Internews will support IPC to produce its weekly flagship TV show “The National Security Issue,” a high-quality program that IPC has been running for 11 years and which already has a loyal following, which will be further expanded through this support. The show covers important issues affecting or of interest to viewers about Crimea, Crimean and Donbas IDPs, and viewers in the southern and eastern regions. The show will be broadcast on Chornomorska TV and its YouTube channel, and on IPC’s Center for Journalist Investigations portal and through its social media networks. 30

IPC will produce 38 episodes of the 30-minute TV show “The National Security Issue” as well as online content that can be shared on social media networks in order to reach online audiences as well as TV viewers for Chornomorska TV. IPC aims to have a qualitative impact by trying to positively influence state policy for the eventual freeing of Crimea from occupation, ensuring that Ukrainian sanctions lists are synchronized with the US and EU lists, promoting Ukraine’s strategy for de-occupation of Crimea and Donbas, facilitating protection of Crimean residents’ rights, and seeing the opening of prosecutions against criminals exposed by IPC’s investigative reporting. Donetsk Media Network and Training events: The Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) will continue to strengthen the capacity of its established network of journalists from 12 newsrooms from different regions of Ukraine, including the East and South, that are interested in engaging and collaborating with each other on news and information exchange. The network was built on the experience of organizing the Donetsk Media Forum (DMF) in previous years. Membership of the network is promoted during the DMF each year. The network’s members will be mentored during a three-day School of Media Quality for the East focused on production of multimedia materials and documentary video. The School will help participants create 24 high-quality multimedia publications and 18 pieces of video content in a video storytelling format. DII will work to ensure that participants in the network have access to training opportunities to increase their quality of production and quantity of stories, especially on topics such as democratic governance, dialogue, and conflict resolution. South Ukraine Media Training and content production support: The Odesa-based Institute for Political Information (IPI) will continue a raft of activities to support media and journalists in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson. Given that the organization has significant experience in creating video content on the progress of reforms and other socially important issues, IPI will share this experience with representatives of the media and public organizations of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions. IPI’s educational work devoted to Southern Ukraine will include day-to-day mentoring and support for 100 journalists, bloggers and public activists to use new methods of working with visual and analytical content and elaborating on information related to elections, reforms and developing quality media products. IPI will produce 120 video digests (two to three minutes’ duration) for the general public and 40 analytical articles using the online platform Tilda to cover reforms in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. Among the topics covered will be: best practices of decentralization (including uniting local communities), public and business initiatives to facilitate reforms in the region, and reform of education and health care and how these reforms will impact the living standards of residents of the south of Ukraine. The articles will be publicized via IPI’s news website “Democratic Informer” (www.informer.od.ua, around 90,000 visitors per month), all-Ukrainian NGO coalitions “Transparent Councils” and “Under Control,” and social networks. Video digests will include reforms and elections related news and will be produced three times per week in the format of short (two to three minutes’ duration In 2020, IPI will launch the new “InformerStream” project to produce high-quality information and analytical content online. IPI will conduct live broadcasts (at least two per month), interviews, and discussions in a live stream format from important events taking place in the Odesa region (city council sessions, demonstrations, cultural events). The key task of the project is to stimulate consumer demand for high-quality reliable content and to 31

counter fakes and propaganda. At the moment in Odesa there are no independent media outlets working in a similar format, while there is a significant demand for high-quality online news and information due to the growing audience in social media networks. This activity has high potential to reach a large audience, as well as become a successful example for other media in the field. IPI aims to reach an audience of around 700,000 viewers during the period of project implementation. Famous and reputable local bloggers with their own audiences will be invited to take part. After the live stream, all videos will be processed and published as part of the “InformerTV” digests in caption video format. Media Hub Kharkiv information expansion to the East of Ukraine: To develop journalists’ skills and prepare the new generation of journalists, KPC will provide internship opportunities for young journalists – students in their final year of study – who will participate in KPC activities and help KPC engage younger audiences. KPC will continue the practice of conducting its media events with online broadcasts. Around 160 media events and eight inter-regional thematic video bridges between professionals, journalists, academics, youth, members of local councils, representatives of united communities, etc. will be held on topics of European integration, progress of reforms in the field, local elections in 2020, the impact of youth on public life, the role of the public sector and the interaction of government and the public, etc. To share information on the latest developments and challenges in the media sector with a focus on Eastern and Southern Ukraine KPC will hold three online media managers clubs using the MediaPool platform on Facebook. KPC will prepare 50 news reports with the assistance of two young journalist interns about the results of events and covering reforms. These information materials will be disseminated via 30 regional media partners in Eastern Ukraine. Innovative media consumption and trust research in the East and South: In Y1 this research was postponed because of the elections. In Y2 Internews will cooperate with the production of NDI’s semi-annual studies on the impact of disinformation on Ukrainians’ attitudes to tailor Media Program interventions in these regions. NDI’s research seeks to build a typology of vulnerability to disinformation that can shape the design and targeting of effective counter-measures, including the ability to test interventions before they are deployed at scale. Internews will cover the cost of oversamples in Luhansk and Odesa, key eastern and southern cities. The findings may support the production of content in formats known to enjoy greater trust in these parts of the country or to employ arguments that resonate better among the public there. NDI will provide a comprehensive report to Internews on the results of the survey and focus groups. Internews annual nationwide study into Ukrainian’s media consumption, trust in media, and media literacy: In Y2 Internews will commission its annual nationwide survey and focus groups to study Ukrainians’ media consumption, trust in their media, and media literacy. This survey has been carried out for the past seven years with USAID support. Under the Media Program in Ukraine, we have heightened its focus on the East and South by conducting additional focus groups there. In collaboration with USAID’s Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative we will seek to extend the research to cover the NGCAs, e.g. by surveying people who regularly cross the contact line, through social media or via mobile phone. The results will be used to reinforce approaches used in training and content production activities

and as a starting point for discussions amongst the media community on how to improve standards and trust. Internews will work with a local research company to refine the questions for the survey, produce a user-friendly version for publication, and publicize the results. The selected local research company will carry out face to face interviews and focus groups and produce a comprehensive report. Quantitative or qualitative indicators

IMI will produce four reports looking at the media environment in the East and South in February – May 2020.

IPC will organize eight trainings (four in each media center) that will attract a total of 80 journalists, bloggers and community activists in the South. IPC will produce 38 shows and 12 investigative reports, with each show gaining an average estimated audience of five million viewers. DII anticipates up to 350 journalists will attend DMF, with 12 newsrooms to be part of DII’s network. A school on media quality (texts and video materials in a storytelling format) will be held for 20 journalists. The participants will create 24 high-quality multimedia publications and 18 pieces of video content in a video storytelling format. IPI will provide day-to-day mentoring and support for 100 journalists, bloggers and public activists. IPI will produce 120 video digests (2-3 minutes long) for the general public and 40 analytical articles using Tilda to cover reforms in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. Each video will have approximately 1,000 views with a total 120,000 unique views for the whole project and 20,000 views for the articles are expected for the entire project as well. These calculations are based on the previous successful experience from creating a similar digest in social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Telegram – total amount of subscribers of the project now is about 18,000 users) and on the public web source informer.od.ua (50,000 readers per month). IPI’s “InformerStream” project will reach 700,000 viewers. KPC will conduct 171 media events on reforms and other socially important issues and produce 50 information materials that will be disseminated by 30 regional media in Eastern Ukraine. Timeline

IMI’s research will take place from February to May 2020.

IPC television programs are weekly and will be aired from October 2019 through September 2020.

IPC will organize eight trainings for 80 journalists, bloggers and community activists in the South.

The DMF is planned for September 2020. The network will start in October 2019, content production will start in December 2019 and finish in September 2020. The School of Media Quality for the East will be conducted in November 2019.

IPI will implement its’ activities from October 2019 till September 2020

KPC will conduct media events in October 2019 – September 2020.

Internews will conduct its annual media consumption survey from May – September 2020.

Internews will work with NDI on the first round of the disinformation impact survey from October 2019 to January 2020.

OBJECTIVE 2: Increase public demand for quality information

Expected results for Objective 2: • Media literacy efforts expanded to more schools and other audiences, particularly in the East and South • Citizen skills to determine quality media content improved, particularly in the East and South • Consumption of high-quality content increased • Media monitoring organizations regularly document and publish analysis on violations of journalism standards • Ukrainian and international media consumers have reliable information pertaining to media professionalism • Feedback mechanisms established within media support organizations and media outlets for journalists and citizens to report on ethical violations

Summary of activities to be carried out under Objective 2 to achieve the above expected results: • The Media Program in Ukraine will support creative solutions to counter propaganda, increase demand for high-quality media, and cultivate critical thinking through interactive exhibitions, online comedies, competitions and engaging multimedia content. Activities include the Propagandarium exhibition by Internews Ukraine, short video comedies by Detector Media, the “Catch a Fake!” competition by the Institute of Mass Information, and radio/online talk shows by Hromadske Radio. • The TrollessUA action is designed to counter disinformation by gathering volunteers (Cyber Elves) to identify trolls operating in the Ukrainian Facebook space. Internews Ukraine will teach the Cyber Elves to identify suspicious or inauthentic accounts that are spreading Kremlin narratives online. After verifying the accounts are suspicious, IUA will inform Facebook to ask for their removal. • The Academy of Ukrainian Press will run media education schools for secondary school and preschool teachers throughout Ukraine’s regions, with an emphasis on the East, South and West. The schools for teachers are a way to promote the effective integration of media literacy into mandatory secondary school disciplines and 34

preschool curricula, by increasing teachers’ confidence in teaching the field. • Media literacy summer camps are a fun and popular way for the Academy of Ukrainian Press to teach older schoolchildren how to consume media messages critically, how to recognize disinformation, how to avoid being manipulated by media content, and how to create quality media products. • The Academy of Ukrainian Press, Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy will jointly organize a nationwide media literacy conference for 250 media literacy practitioners from different regions of Ukraine to facilitate cooperation between media watchdogs, media outlets, educators, the Ministry of Education and Sciences, librarians, and scholars. • The Academy of Ukrainian Press will develop new learning resources for media literacy teachers and school kids, to be shared with all media literacy practitioners and on the Online Media Literacy Resource Hub. • The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy and Ternopil Press Club will conduct media literacy discussions, trainings and interactive events in the regions for editors-in-chief of national and local outlets, media portals, information agencies, media experts and interested individuals to tackle the problems in the media space that have been identified by media monitoring experts. • Internews will run a Y2 media literacy grants competition in December 2019 to expand media literacy efforts to more schools and other audiences, particularly in the East and South; improve citizen skills to determine quality media content; increase public demand for high-quality content; and improve citizens’ critical thinking skills to discern disinformation. • Media monitoring plays a critical role in quality oversight and self-regulation, especially during elections. Internews partners Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy will create user-friendly analyses of media performance, disinformation, gender bias and political influence in the most popular TV and online resources, as well as a selection of destatized community newspapers around the country. • Whitelisting: The Institute of Mass Information will select Ukrainian online media on the basis of the quality and ethics of their reporting to be part of a Whitelist. Whitelisted media will be promoted with international, national and regional advertisers as safe and responsible media with which to place advertising, conveying a financial advantage to media for observing high professional standards.

2.1. Streamlining media literacy efforts • Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Context and Lessons Learned Internews’ media literacy efforts in Year 2 of the Media Program in Ukraine will improve the critical thinking of media consumers and journalists, stimulating demand for better journalism from the general public. Malign Russian influence in the information space continues, so Ukrainians need to be able to weigh the credibility of information sources and facts. This is particularly vital with local elections coming in 2020, as disinformation tends to increase during election campaign periods.

Ukraine is taking steps to improve citizens’ resilience by integrating media literacy into schools. In 2018, Internews’ partner the Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) found that most secondary schools that are teaching media literacy have changed their focus from theory to practice as a way of guiding students to analyze and evaluate news, and communicate information on their own. However, AUP’s assessment is that continuing education institutions for teachers in the West of Ukraine in 2019 are weak on media literacy. To overcome this weakness, Internews will support a media education school for teachers from Western regions of Ukraine, alongside media education trainings in the East and South. AUP will also continue to develop media literacy guides and handbooks for teachers and children to strengthen media literacy learning in schools and create more resources for the younger generation to improve their critical thinking skills.

Cultivation of critical thinking among adults is an important step towards creating greater resilience to malign influence and disinformation. In Internews’ 2019 media consumption survey, respondents in different regions of Ukraine were tested for their ability to discern real news from disinformation. The results showed that only 9% of respondents were able to correctly identify the difference between real and false information in each of the three news stories provided, while on average 15% could not attempt an answer. Two-thirds of respondents were able to identify only one out of the three options correctly. Internews will support an array of activities – media camps, media literacy projects at public libraries, contests for media consumers, regional media literacy discussions, radio and YouTube shows – to increase media consumers’ ability to recognize disinformation.

Internews partner Detector Media’s research in 2019 (“Sources of Information, Media Literacy, and Russian Propaganda”) showed that 21% of respondents throughout Ukraine self-identified as capable of distinguishing credible information from disinformation. However, only 9.7% said they had seen any content on broadcast or online media about how to be more aware of fakes and disinformation. A large proportion – 65.4% – responded that they were not interested in watching this type of content. In response, Detector Media decided to try designing entertainment and comedy formats to deliver media literacy skills, in short comic videos posted on YouTube. Episodes produced in Y1 of the project reached between 5,000 and 86,000 viewers depending on the episode.

Internews and the Academy of Ukrainian Press will continue to coordinate with IREX’s Learn to Discern in Schools (L2D-S) project which involves 400 secondary schools in all regions of Ukraine. The L2D-S curriculum is based on AUP’s previous curriculum tools developed under USAID’s U-Media Program. Internews will coordinate closely with IREX and AUP to ensure that there is no overlap in activities, and each program benefits from each amplifies the results of each other.

The expected results under this component include expansion of media literacy efforts to more schools and audiences; improved citizen skills to determine quality media content, particularly in the East and South; and increased consumption of high-quality content.

Implementing Partners

• Internews Ukraine (IUA) 36

• Detector Media (DM) • Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) • Institute of Mass Information (IMI) • Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) • Hromadske Radio (HR) • Ternopil Press Club (TPC) • Small grantees to be identified throughout Year 2 of the Program

Partner Activities and Steps

A creative and innovative product of Internews Ukraine (IUA) that counters propaganda and cultivates critical thinking – the mobile “Propagandarium” exhibition – was launched in Y1 in Kramatorsk, Odesa, and Kyiv. Visitors to the Propagandarium were provided with a chance to experience direct forms of propaganda and learn more about how to counter it, using multimedia and virtual reality headsets. In Year 2, IUA will update the content with the latest Kremlin narratives aimed at undermining Ukraine’s progress. The Propagandarium will be exhibited in five locations (during popular local festivals and public events). TrollessUA: Internews Ukraine’s (IUA) joint initiative with Internews’ Moldovan partner in 2019 resulted in the formation of a group of 164 volunteers (Cyber Elves) who joined the initiative to help detect trolls in the Ukrainian Facebook space. So far, the project group together with volunteers have identified 1,247 suspicious profiles. In cooperation with Moldovan colleagues, a special Chrome plugin and online database system are in the final stage of development. In Year 2, IUA will test and launch the Chrome plugin for public use. A chat-bot for mobile devices is under construction, and the question map for it has been developed ready for launch in Y2. IUA will enhance the recruitment campaign and promotion of the plugin via social media marketing by producing and posting three short videos and teasers about the action. IUA will continue to verify suspicious profiles and support the volunteer group. The project team will negotiate with Facebook on blocking verified inauthentic profiles (trolls). Also, new topics for troll identification will be introduced: anti- vaccination narratives, gender-biased and racist narratives, and hate speech. Special attention will be paid to anti-Ukrainian and Kremlin-generated narratives promoted by suspicious Facebook accounts during Ukraine’s local elections in 2020. The results of the project including the consequences of the cooperation with Facebook will be presented at two public events. Throughout the action, Internews Ukraine will provide technical support for the operation of the online platform, chat-bot and plugin. Regional media education summer schools (Education labs): In the summer of 2020 the Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) will organize an intensive course of media education for 25 secondary school teachers of natural sciences of Khmelnytsky, Rivne, Volyn and Ivano- Frankivsk regions. This summer school will be a step forward in the integration of media literacy into mandatory school disciplines because the participating teachers will join in with the Ministry of Education and Science’s introduction of voluntary implementation of media literacy elements during the natural sciences lessons. By organizing the summer media education school in the West of Ukraine, AUP will expand the geographic focus of media literacy work and involve more schools in the pool of the Ministry’s media literacy experiment.

Media education school for preschool teachers: In the summer of 2020 AUP will expand to include preschool education in a first-ever media literacy education school for 25 kindergarten teachers. AUP will develop the first “Media Literacy in Preschool Education” textbook to be used by kindergarten teachers within the preschool curricula. In 2019 AUP partnered with a group of preschool teachers to produce three media education curricula for kindergartens. The Ministry of Education and Sciences of Ukraine approved these curricula and recommended them for use in preschool education.

Media camps for active youth: In Y2, AUP will hold four media camps (in Kyiv or other regions) for 25 older pupils and six teachers each. Schoolchildren from different regions of Ukraine will be selected on a competitive basis. Scheduled for October 2019, February 2020, June 2020, and August 2020, the four-day camps will teach participants how to consume media messages critically, how to recognize disinformation, how to avoid traps of manipulation in media, and how to create quality media products.

International media education and media literacy conference: To facilitate cooperation between media watchdogs, media outlets, educators, the Ministry of Education and Science, librarians, scholars, and international donors, AUP will organize its annual media literacy conference for around 250 media literacy practitioners from different regions of Ukraine. To share best international practices in media literacy, AUP plans to invite long-term counterparts Nouneh Sarkissian (managing director for the Media Initiatives Center, Armenia), Tamara Mackevich (deputy chair of the Belarusian School of Fellowship), and representatives of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE, USA). The event is preliminarily scheduled for late March-early April 2020 in Kyiv.

Publications and online media literacy resource: Internews partner AUP will upgrade its Online Media Literacy Resource Hub with media literacy tools, lessons learned, research and training resources produced by various institutions. In 2020, AUP will prepare and distribute 30 weekly newsletters providing recommendations for schoolteachers piloting media literacy modules in art, language, literature, and “I explore the world” classes. New e- handbooks will be produced about the integration of media literacy into art and computer science for the third grade of secondary school. In the 2019-2020 academic year around 100 schools, 500 teachers, and 7,000 schoolchildren will use these products.

In 2019, while conducting a competition for the best model lessons with elements of media literacy in the field of natural sciences, AUP discovered that many of the 800 teachers who submitted their work were still weak in some aspects of media literacy methodology. To address this issue, AUP will prepare e-handbooks on how best to integrate media literacy into geography, biology and chemistry lessons.

AUP will produce a teaching methodology called “History of Crimea” with elements of media literacy that can be incorporated into Ukrainian history lessons for the fifth through 12th grades of secondary schools.

To bring best international practices and resources on media literacy, AUP will coordinate translation of the media literacy course “Smart, Alert, Strong, Kind, Brave” launched by Google. The course includes sets of lessons (e.g. “Don’t Fall for Fakes”) aimed at teaching children to think critically and distinguish between credible sources and disinformation, as 38

well as learning how to identify fake internet links. AUP will publish the translation of this course on the Online Media Literacy Resource Hub.

Competition for regional libraries to implement media literacy mini projects: From November 2019-January 2020, AUP will organize a competition for regional libraries to submit project proposals for small media literacy projects in the regions. Regional libraries remain important resources for receiving information and networking for residents of small towns and will serve as media education providers for youth leaders.

Internews’ media monitoring partners will transform their monitoring reports into user friendly products for broader audiences (adults, youth, community leaders, professionals of different sectors) to cultivate critical media consumption and raise awareness of fake and manipulation techniques.

Among the products to be developed and distributed by monitoring partners will be short videos for YouTube and viral caption-videos for Facebook (including mini video comedies) to attract the attention of younger audiences in how to counteract fakes and disinformation and identify hidden advertising. Detector Media (DM) will produce 25 comedic YouTube media literacy programs (with well-known anchors participating) highlighting cases of manipulation in Ukrainian media. In addition, DM will produce 20 caption videos for Facebook distribution in Year 2 (with an estimated audience of 15,000 each) explaining challenging cases in the media sector. Detector Media will also post at least 20 articles and 40 news segments on media literacy topics on a monthly basis on the Mediasapiens online resource, which is well-known within the media community.

The “Catch a Fake!” contest in the regions: The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) will organize this regional contest which will serve as a popular feedback mechanism encouraging media consumers to recognize fakes in local media and submit their findings to the contest organizers. The complaints will be further transferred to media regulatory bodies, such as the Independent Media Council, the Journalism Ethics Commission, and the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, for their action, ideally through amendments to legislation, public statements, or media outlets’ retractions.

Media literacy discussions and workshops in the regions: The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) will organize media discussions in three regions (following POID’s three waves of regional media monitoring) that will bring together editors-in-chief of national and local outlets, media portals, information agencies, and media experts to tackle the problems in the media space that have been identified by monitoring. POID will engage journalists, press officers of local authorities, civic leaders, educators, librarians, youth and other interested individuals to raise public awareness of the criteria of good journalism, manipulation techniques, the attributes of disinformation, and methods of verification of information.

Radio talk shows raising critical thinking: Hromadske Radio will produce ten 50-minute talk shows to counter disinformation in different sectors of Ukrainian life, including politics, advertising, media, employment, personal and professional relations. Hromadske Radio will use a new format for this kind of show: instead of the classic one-on-one interview, the show’s two hosts will discuss recent examples of fake news and misleading statements, as well as the general political and social situation. The show will make a shift from a narrower 39

intellectual listenership to a broader audience. The show is to appear in two formats: a longer podcast and a shorter video version of the best parts of the podcast.

Media literacy and resilience to disinformation grants competition: In Year 2 of the program, Internews will support up to 20 projects (with average budgets of around $25,000) selected on a competitive basis to increase public demand for quality information and streamline media literacy efforts. The projects will expand media literacy efforts to more schools and other audiences, particularly in the East and South; improve citizen skills to determine quality media content; increase public demand for high-quality content; and improve citizens’ critical thinking skills to discern disinformation.

The Ternopil Press Club (TPC) will conduct two trainings for residents of the Ternopil region and two interactive sessions on media literacy and factchecking. TPC will also produce 30 fact-checking materials and 96 texts aimed at promoting media literacy and publish booklets called “Be Media Literate!” aimed at adults.

Quantitative and qualitative targets: • Detector Media (DM) will produce and distribute 25 comic YouTube media literacy mini shows. • Internews Ukraine (IUA) will attract 500 visitors during Propagandarium exhibitions • IUA will identify around 1,500 suspicious Facebook profiles • Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) will publish seven online guides for teachers: o “Media literacy and Ukrainian language and literature” (3rd grade), o “I explore the world” (3rd grade), and o “Media literacy and art” (3rd grade), o “Media Literacy and Natural Science” (four handbooks integrating media literacy modules into biology, chemistry, physics and geography lessons). • Each handbook will have at least 1,000 downloads. • AUP will produce the first Ukrainian textbook on “Media Literacy in Preschool education” with at least 10,000 downloads. • AUP’s translation of 100 pages of the media literacy course for children launched by Google will have at least 3,000 downloads. • AUP’s Media Education Summer School will instruct 25 regional natural sciences teachers on integration of media literacy into mandatory disciplines. • AUP will hold four Media Camps for about 100 older pupils and 24 teachers. • AUP’s competition of libraries’ media literacy mini projects will have around 40 submissions, and five winners will receive AUP’s support. • About 250 media literacy practitioners will join the annual media education and media literacy conference. • Hromadske Radio will produce ten 50-minute radio talk shows about disinformation, reaching around 450,000 listeners monthly. • POID will organize and moderate three regional media discussions. Around 90 professional individuals will participate in the discussions, and participants will transfer information to their own professional networks after attending the events. • POID will organize eight media literacy trainings for 180 journalists, press officers of local authorities, civic leaders, educators, librarians, youth and other interested

professionals. The events will be arranged in eight regions of Ukraine with a special focus on the East and the South. • POID will carry out media monitoring in 23 regions of Ukraine. The monitoring results will be presented in 23 regional and three consolidated analytical reports and will reach around 4,000 unique users. • TPC will hold four media literacy events for 75 local residents, prepare 126 reports on local examples of disinformation, and produce 1,000 booklets for adults called “Be Media Literate!”

Timeline for implementation:

• Detector Media (DM) will produce and distribute media literacy programs in October 2019-September 2020. • Internews Ukraine will conduct Propagandarium exhibition and Trolles UA activities in October 2019 – September 2020 • Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) will develop and distribute its media literacy resources in October 2019-July 2020. The AUP’s first media education school for preschool teachers will take place in February 2020. • AUP’s first summer school for natural science teachers will take place in June 2020. • AUP’s annual media education and media literacy conference will take place in late March-early April 2020. • AUP will hold a competition of mini projects for media education library activities in November 2019-January 2020. • AUP’s four media camps for youth will take place in October 2019, February 2020, June 2020 and August 2020. • Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) will hold three media discussions and eight media literacy workshops in the regions in October 2019-September 2020. • Hromadske Radio will produce radio talk shows in October-November 2019. • IMI will organize the “Catch a Fake!” contest in March-May 2020. • TPC will conduct media literacy events on June – September 2020 and produce booklet in March 2020

2.2. Expanding media monitoring efforts • Impacts of Russian Aggression DO2 Mitigated

Context and Lessons Learned Citizens’ trust in sources of information depends on the quality and reliability of the information offered by media companies, with television still the dominant source of information in Ukraine. According to the latest Internews media consumption survey in 2019, close to 66% of Ukrainians primarily use television for the purpose of getting news and information (down from 77% in 2018). At the same time as the number of people relying on TV has decreased, there has been a spike in use of social media as a primary source of news and information – around 68%, up from 53% in 2018. The 2019 election year saw a precipitate decline in trust of both national and regional media, down by roughly 10-15% 41

from 2018, a natural response to the increase of media corruption during the election campaigns. Since disinformation continues to be key to the continuing hybrid war, it is crucial to understand whether media outlets which have the highest level of trust are distributing reliable information. For this purpose, Internews will support media monitoring at the national and regional levels and facilitate the distribution of monitoring results and expert opinions on content quality to a wide audience. Through grants and technical support Ukrainian media organizations will monitor media for signs of disinformation, paid news, censorship, conflict of interest, violation of professional standards, and Kremlin propaganda.

Internews’ monitoring partners – Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, and Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (all members of the media movement For Conscious Choice, established in February 2018) – declared during 2018-2019 that manipulative messages were distributed to Ukrainian media consumers through entertainment, as well as through news and information programs. Detector Media will add monitoring of entertainment programming to its usual roster of news, political talk shows, and debates.

Media watchdogs tend to focus on violations of professional standard when communicating their media monitoring results with journalists, without singling out positive examples, which has meant that these reports cause a negative reaction among journalists. As part of promoting the positive aspects of ethical journalistic behavior, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) will work on the Whitelisting project in 2019-2020. The Whitelist will identify media outlets which follow professional standards and that can be recommended to advertisers.

Activities will lead to expected results that ensure media monitoring organizations regularly document and publish analysis on violations of journalism standards, as well as best practices in media, and that Ukrainian and international consumers have reliable information pertaining to media professionalism. The target audience will include the media industry itself, government and civic leaders, international organizations, foreign governments, and the general public.

Implementing Partners ● Detector Media (DM) ● Institute of Mass Information (IMI) ● Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID)

Partner Activities and Steps

Media monitoring results to encourage public discussion on media content quality: Internews will support the media monitoring efforts of local partners through a media monitoring grants pool and related mentoring. Monitors will examine journalistic professionalism, political influence, hidden advertising, disinformation, and presence of women’s voices in media. Internews will provide expert assistance to ensure that data collection and analysis is methodologically rigorous, and is presented in an accessible, searchable, and sharable way that encourages public discussion (e.g. sharing infographics or animations, partnering with a media outlet to build content around them). Internews will support cross-posting of results on monitoring groups’ websites and regulatory sites, and results will also be uploaded to Internews’ website and Facebook page. 42

Media monitoring organizations will receive technical assistance and opportunities for creative partnerships to expand their impact and improve feedback mechanisms (e.g. websites, chat bots, social media, hotlines) so that citizens can more easily report ethical violations and engage with their work.

Internews’ monitoring partners will communicate ethical violations with media self- regulatory bodies – the Independent Media Council and the Commission for Journalism Ethics – which will use media monitors’ findings for public statements and “quiet diplomacy” contacts with media representatives.

Monitoring national television channels: Internews will support Detector Media (DM) to do monthly monitoring of news, political talk shows, debates, entertainment, and primetime guest studios on leading national television channels (UA:Pershy, 1+1, Inter, ICTV, STB, Ukraina Channel, Channel 5, and 112 Ukraine). DM will also conduct quarterly monitoring of 10 regional TV channels in the East and South of Ukraine. The monitoring reports will contain information on whether the channels follow professional standards, publish disinformation or hidden advertising, lobby for certain political parties’ interests, conceal socially important news, etc. In addition to traditional reports, DM will produce and widely distribute infographics, catchy articles, and multimedia products to contribute to the cultivation of critical media consumption. Internews will ensure that DM receives expert advice on packaging monitoring results in a user-friendly format (e.g. infographics, animated videos, explainers, etc.)

Monitoring top national online media: Internews’ partner Institute of Mass Information (IMI) will monitor the top 10 national online media (those with an audience of around five million people) and the top online media in 10 regions (with particular attention to East and South) for evidence of disinformation, fakes, paid news, violations of professional standards (particularly objectivity, accuracy, and reliability), Russian propaganda narratives, gender balance, and different aspects of human rights coverage (national minorities, LGBTI, etc.). In addition to its monitoring reports, IMI will produce a monthly Barometer of Freedom of Speech, revealing cases of violations of journalists’ professional rights, including restrictions of access to public information, prevention of journalists from conducting professional work, and physical attacks on journalists. The findings will be spread through the IMI media database (over 1,500 addressees – national and regional media) and through the IMI network in the regions. To distribute monitoring results as widely as possible, media monitoring partners will conduct joint presentations, roundtables, and press conferences, as well as participate in one another’s events at the national and regional levels (specific details included in the quantitative and qualitative targets section below).

During 2019-2020, IMI, in tandem with other monitoring groups, will work on a Whitelisting project. First, media monitors will use specific criteria to determine whether media outlets are following professional standards. Media that meet the criteria will be included in a Whitelist that will be promoted among media and business communities (advertisers, in particular) to encourage media-business cooperation. At the same time, the Whitelist will demonstrate positive developments in media and provide an incentive for media companies to improve their professional and ethical practices. IMI plans to launch the Whitelist in the first part of 2020. 43

Monitoring reformed regional media: Internews will support monitoring of regional print media outlets that went through the privatization reform from state to private newspapers in 2019. The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) will monitor the quality of the reformed outlets’ content in 23 regions across Ukraine (two waves of monitoring will cover eight regions and one wave will cover seven regions; media monitoring in Kyiv region will be covered by IMI). In October 2019, POID will organize an in-house meeting of its 24 regional experts to discuss lessons learned from monitoring the reformed media for the last year and synchronize their approaches in examining media products for journalistic professionalism, political influence, hidden advertising, disinformation, and compliance with journalistic ethics. Coverage of the 23 regions through the life of the project will provide a comprehensive picture of media content quality in the outlets that have undertaken the destatization reform, especially in light of decentralization and local election campaigns in 2020. The results also form the basis for direct discussions with the community newspapers themselves on how to improve, as well as providing useful data for media hubs (like the Kharkiv Press Club, the Ternopil Press Club and others) that provide technical assistance to reformed newspapers in the regions. Quantitative or qualitative targets

• DM will produce around 60 monitoring reports (1,500 views on DM website per report); five reports on quantitative analysis of the presence of political figures and parties in evening primetime programs (1,500 views on DM website per report); and 16 reports on findings of pro-Russian narratives on Ukrainian TV channels (1,500 views on DM website per report). • IMI will produce 12 Barometers of Freedom of Speech (1,500 views on IMI website of each of the Barometers); 12 monitoring reports (three on jeansa, three on professional standards, three on Russian narratives, and three on gender balance in national and top regional online media). Each of the reports will collect 1,500 views on IMI’s website. • IMI will produce and distribute 40 infographics and multimedia products promoting media monitoring results. • POID will produce 23 monitoring reports (16 regions will be covered in two monitoring waves and seven regions will be covered in one monitoring wave). • POID will hold three regional media discussions, eight media literacy workshops and one national roundtable.

Timeline for implementation Partners’ activities will take place from October 2019 to September 2020.

OBJECTIVE 3. Implement critical media reforms

Expected Results for Objective 3:

• Role of UA:PBC as an independent, appropriately funded source of quality information institutionalized

• More state/municipal print media reformed into private outlets • Transparency of ownership law monitored and fully implemented • Access to information law consistently adhered to and equally applied by public authorities • Media practitioners’ access to legal aid and protection increased • Monitoring and advocacy for the legal enabling environment for press freedom by Ukrainian organizations strengthened Summary of activities to be carried out under Objective 3 to achieve the above expected results: • When the Media Program in Ukraine was designed there was an assumption that the major needed media reforms had been successfully passed and that the onus of our work should be on implementation. However, with the advent of a new government with a strong majority, it is possible that new legislative priorities may affect the media landscape in unexpected ways. The Media Program will work to ensure that its Ukrainian partners specializing in media policy reform and advocacy are able to provide oversight over any new laws that might impact media freedom. The initial focus will be on the draft of the audiovisual services law, which is part of Ukraine’s commitments to bringing national legislation in line with European law. It should contain important elements including those that may have an impact on state and co-regulation of the media sector, and the privatization of municipal and local government-owned broadcast media around the country. • The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) has been tasked by the government to play moderator through the initial discussions between the national broadcasting companies about the content of the audiovisual services bill. This is positive, in that one of Internews’ partners is already involved in the preparation stages and is therefore knowledgeable about the draft’s contents, however a broader role for civil society lawyers needs to be established. The Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) will hold an expert session for media lawyers and other stakeholders on the key changes needed in the audiovisual sector, while IAB will organize regular updates and organize stakeholder meetings mainly focused on the privatization aspects of the bill. CEDEM and IAB will share research on relevant issues and prepare public statements together with partners of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (a forum encompassing major civil society organizations). • CEDEM will monitor the situation around internet freedom in Ukraine, advocating for the online space as a broad and inclusive place for public discussion, preventing restrictions to freedom of speech, and ensuring that any limits placed on access to information are justified according to international and European legal standards. • Ukraine is one of the world’s worst offenders when it comes to the use of pirated content, which makes it difficult for broadcast content to be shared or marketed to potential buyers abroad. The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) will host three training events where media representatives will be taught about free content resources, ways to use cost-effective paid content libraries and rules for obtaining rights for the copyright content of other broadcasters. CEDEM will advocate for higher awareness of copyright rules and produce analysis on the most egregious abuses of copyright.

3.1. Supporting application of key media reforms DO3 •Democratic Governance Strengthened

Context and Connection to the Objective Previous USAID funding has enabled Ukrainian NGOs to successfully lobby for media reforms (public broadcasting, destatization of print media) and collaborate with government institutions to help them fulfill their new obligations. When this project was designed there was an assumption that the major media reforms had been passed and that the focus should be on correct implementation. However, with a new presidential administration and parliament, it is possible that new legislative priorities may affect the media landscape in unexpected ways. It is crucial that there remains civil society and independent media oversight in the elaboration of new laws that may impact media development. Internews will prioritize creative approaches to new advocacy partnerships and ensure coordination with relevant donor programs. Internews will work closely with civil society partners, particularly members of RPR-Media group https://rpr.org.ua/groups-rpr/11media-reforma/ (RPR, the Reanimation Package of Reforms, is the largest coalition of leading Ukrainian NGOs and independent experts), and key government institutions, such as the National Council for TV and Radio (NCTR), the Parliamentary Committee on the Freedom of Speech, and any newly- established government agencies dealing with media reform, to strengthen their capacity and foster civic engagement with the development of legislation. Implementing Partners • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) • Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB)

Partner activities and steps

Advocacy to ensure civil society oversight over the creation of the new audiovisual services law: One of the key requirements for Ukraine according to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement is to bring its legislation and implementation practice in line with the European standards, specifically in the field of audiovisual media regulation. The audiovisual services law should contain provisions on the privatization of state and municipal-financed broadcast media, as well as changes to the media regulatory environment that might include co-regulation (a joint state and civil society regulator). Internews partners will aim to help finalize the new audiovisual services law. The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) was asked by the government in August 2019 to facilitate a closed session on the draft of the new bill, to which the presidential administration invited only representatives of the major national broadcasters. This is positive, in that one of Internews’ partners is already involved in the preparation stages and is therefore knowledgeable about the draft’s contents, however a broader role for civic activists in oversight needs to be established further down the line.

CEDEM will hold an expert discussion for media lawyers and other stakeholders on the key changes needed in the field of audiovisual media regulation. IAB will continue its advocacy campaign to support the audiovisual draft law as a whole and the destatization aspect in particular. Both CEDEM and IAB will share research and legal publications on topical issues,

and prepare public statements together with partners of the Reanimation Package of Reforms. IAB will produce regular updates on the process with infographics and organize relevant stakeholder meetings.

Monitoring and advice on advocacy for internet freedom: In light of the ongoing military conflict, the Ukrainian authorities have made numerous attempts to strengthen information security at the same time as restricting the right to freedom of expression online. The Doctrine of the Information Security of Ukraine dated February 2017 suggests a mechanism of blocking and deleting information that threatens state and personal security as among the priorities for new legislation. Recognizing the role of the internet for hosting broad and inclusive public discussion, Internews’ partner CEDEM considers that it is of paramount importance to secure an open and transparent online sphere. For this reason, CEDEM will monitor and analyze all relevant draft legislative initiatives and use its advocacy tools in order to prevent restrictions of freedom of expression online and their progress through the parliamentary pipeline. Advising on copyright regulation to tame content piracy: Ukraine is one of the world’s worst offenders in terms of piracy of content. Unlawful use of content by journalists and media outlets both online and offline is a common problem for the Ukrainian media sector. The majority of regional TV and radio companies, including UA:PBC branches, use pirated music, images and videos to create their own content. This is a major obstacle for their transition to a multimedia format and content sharing. One of the reasons is the lack of knowledge about rules, rights and obligations in the sphere of copyright. Internews´ partner CEDEM and its experts will advocate for higher awareness of copyright rules by generating policy papers and analytical materials on the most controversial issues of content usage. IAB will host three one-day trainings for program directors and editors during which 40 participants will find out about available free content resources, ways to use cost-effective paid content libraries and rules for obtaining rights for the copyright content of other broadcasters. Quantitative or qualitative targets

CEDEM will produce four policy papers on the issues of internet regulation, five policy papers on the issues of copyright and an expert discussion on audiovisual regulation.

IAB will host three one-day trainings on copyright for 40 program directors and editors.

Timeline: CEDEM will hold an expert discussion on the audiovisual media regulation in the period October 19-January 20. CEDEM will produce policy papers in October 2019-September 2020. IAB will hold the training on copyright in the period from October to December 2019. IAB will hold regular working meetings on the audiovisual law in December 2019.

3.1.1. Support for advocacy on behalf of UA:PBC

Implementing Partners

• Ukraine’s national public service broadcaster UA:PBC • Detector Media (DM) • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM)

Partner Activities and Steps Detector Media advocacy and support for UA:PBC’s supervisory board: Detector Media representatives took part in a closed, off-the-record meeting organized by the presidential administration to talk to civil society and media representatives. DM used this meeting to advocate strongly for the independence, full financing and alternative funding models of the national public service broadcaster UA:PBC. DM representatives will continue to advocate to the president’s media advisors about the importance of preserving the integrity and independence from political interference of at least one of the national broadcasters which Ukrainians rely on for news and information. Coming from the commercial media sphere, the president’s team tended to look critically at UA:PBC as underperforming, and as a “state” broadcaster. These efforts, as well as those of the Council of Europe’s office in Ukraine, to convince the new administration that public service broadcasting is an important step towards EU integration, may explain the undertakings of the new administration to provide full funding to UA:PBC for at least a year. This was mooted on the premise that full funding would be revisited at the end of the year after a review of key performance indicators that the presidential administration wanted a role in establishing. Further advocacy is needed to convince Ukraine’s new government to provide guarantees of non-interference in the editorial and organizational development of UA:PBC. Given the presence of two of DM’s key staff on UA:PBC’s supervisory board, DM will continue to advocate behind the scenes and in public for better protections for the independence of the public broadcaster.

Regular assessments of the progress of the reform of the public service broadcaster are a useful way to identify gaps and problems that need to be solved. Detector Media will provide analytical updates on the challenges faced by UA:PBC as they relate to the law on public service broadcasting and its implementation, and make recommendations on how to resolve those issues that are connected to legal collisions and gaps in current legislation. DM will set up a distinct area on its website to regularly post updates and will share relevant information with the supervisory board, the executive management board, CEDEM and any other actors involved with the reform process. This information will be public and available on the DM website. Legal advice for UA:PBC: CEDEM will support UA:PBC management and editorial staff by providing legal counseling on a variety of issues. It will assist in drafting internal UA:PBC policies related to its development priorities in the spheres of digital/online development, protection of minors and minorities, advocacy campaigns related to raising awareness about the role of public service broadcasting in a democratic society; and consult UA:PBC on legal documentation for and relationships with regulatory bodies. Promoting the political independence and funding of UA:PBC: Internews will work with CEDEM and the media group of the Reanimation package of reforms to promote and 48

implement solutions for a new funding model and protection of UA:PBC’s editorial independence. CEDEM will produce public statements and expert analysis to promote the adoption of a draft law outlining a new, more effective, model of UA: PBC financing based on allocating funds collected by the state for license fees for radio frequencies. Support for Ernst & Young Roadmap implementation: Internews will provide support to UA:PBC to be able to bring in consultants to help follow the recommendations of the SIDA- funded organizational roadmap. Achieving some of the Ernst & Young milestones will show that UA:PBC is making organizational progress. Support for the Supervisory Board: Internews supported the Supervisory Board of UA:PBC in Y1 of the Media Program in Ukraine by financing a lawyer to act as a secretary to the board. This enabled the Supervisory Board to more effectively assess legal issues as well as to respond to complaints and demands for information. The Supervisory Board and Executive Management Board will also benefit from help with their communication, respective roles, and conflict resolution skills. Quantitative or qualitative targets DM will provide regular updates to the public and stakeholders about the reforms through the website https://stv.detector.media/ (online media covering public broadcasting reform, up to 80,000 page views per month). Throughout the year, DM will publish a series of 24 articles and 60 news materials (approximately two articles and five news reports per month). CEDEM will continue to advocate for the adoption of a draft law for a more stable funding model with three public statements/expert analyses. Timeline for implementation DM will publish at least two articles and at least five news reports monthly starting in October 2019 and continuing until September 2020. CEDEM will continue to advocate for the adoption of a draft law for a more stable funding model for the public service broadcaster from October 2019 through March 2020. 3.1.2. Consolidating the process of destatization

Context and Connection to the Objective Destatization of state-owned media was one of the major reforms passed after the Revolution of Dignity. It releases the state from the burden of financing media and should ensure local media have greater editorial independence from local authorities. At the same time, it is certain that publications serving small and rural communities will struggle to become financially sustainable without significant support and creative strategies. These media companies play an important role in providing communities with hyper-local news, and such communities are usually ill-served by even the larger regional media companies located in the capital of their regions. This makes their survival a matter of priority, especially for marginalized populations (rural, poor and elderly) in the East and South. In order to help them survive, Internews will support Kyiv- and regional-based partners through activities designed to improve their chances of thriving.

Implementing Partners

• Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) • Ternopil Press Club (TPC) • Kharkiv Press Club (KPC)

Partner Activities and Steps Advocacy for a new law on Audiovisual Services to complete destatization of broadcast media: The new law on Audiovisual Services tackles the issue of continued municipal financial control of a large number of TV and radio stations around the country by offering a plan for their privatization. IAB will launch an advocacy campaign to support the draft law. IAB will work on research and analysis of the process, produce regular updates on the process with infographics, and organize relevant stakeholder meetings to advocate for positive change. The number of pieces of research and infographics produced will depend on how much this law is discussed during the year. Training for Destatized Media: Kharkiv Press Club will audit privatized newspapers in Kharkiv oblast and select five local newspapers to help them develop as community media. KPC will work with the selected partners on strategy development and fundraising, high- quality content production, engaging local audience in problem solving, and developing and launching online versions (with the help of the Institute of Political Information). KPC will create a hyperlocal network of media in Kharkiv region – a unified information and analytical web-resource for local communities called “Gromada.” KPC journalists will mentor the selected media’s journalists as they produce content for this resource and the five newspapers will receive stipends to help cover the expense of producing high-quality content (each newsroom will produce 10 articles covering socially important issues affecting the local community). KPC will organize seven targeted training events for the selected newsrooms, designed to specifically meet their needs. The Ternopil Press Club has devised several training modules for privatized newspapers on topics such as running an independent media business, updating the look and content of newspapers, and creating and managing a website. Since the start of this outreach to destatized newspapers (under USAID’s U-Media project), TPC has received a large number of requests for assistance. TPC continues to support 100 privatized media outlets from 12 regions and provide two-day trainings on issues including modernization of their newsrooms, sales and marketing, online outreach, and legal stability. Support will include 12 training events, mentoring in website development and promotion, and a hotline for legal assistance that will operate several hours a day for five days per week. Ten out of the 100 will be selected competitively to benefit from computer or software upgrades to help them adapt to their new digital platforms. TPC will provide mentoring for ten selected newsrooms (a certified specialist will travel to the newsrooms to help them develop a strategic business plan and give advice on its implementation). It will also work on developing and promoting the ten newspapers’ websites and their social media outreach. The ten successful newsrooms that have already launched their online platforms with TPC support will be provided with mentoring to fulfill their mission of becoming true “community media” through the organization of online

information exchanges between community residents and local authorities to solve some of the most pressing local problems. Quantitative or qualitative targets KPC will organize seven training events for five newsrooms of Kharkiv region, 50 high- quality materials will be produced and published on “Gromada” joint platform. Ternopil Press Club will organize 12 trainings for 180 participants from 100 newspapers from 12 regions. TPC expects a 30% improvement in sales income for media that attend their training. TPC lawyers will provide at least 120 legal consultations and prepare 500 pieces of legal information that will be posted on the TPC website and disseminated via partners. TPC will select ten newspapers in an open competition and support them in launching websites and producing good quality content (with expert support and mentoring). Timeline for implementation TPC and KPC will work on destatization-related activities from October 2019 – September 2020.

IAB will actively advocate for a draft of the Audiovisual services law to have civil society media lawyer input in October-December 2019.

3.1.3. Media ownership transparency

Implementing Partners

• Detector Media (DM) • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM)

Partner Activities and Steps Pushing the government to establish transparency of media financing Monitoring of media during the elections showed that the Ukrainian national TV channels were demonstrably biased in their election coverage, with editorial biases clearly influenced by their owners. Currently, 75% of Ukrainian national TV channels are owned by four media groups, owned by businessmen who use them to try to influence public opinion and protect their financial and political interests. The 2015 law on transparency of media ownership did provide access to information about genuine and “puppet” owners of the media (some media are owned by offshore companies or individuals acting as proxies). However, transparency of media ownership has not been sufficient to clean up the industry or encourage owners to allow the media they own to have editorial independence. Various Internews partners have been arguing that financial transparency of media companies is the next logical step to improve transparency, especially in the context of deoligarchization, a stated aim of Ukraine’s new government. In July 2019 CEDEM pioneered a public discussion about oligarch control of the media, receiving broad agreement from the expert community on the need to limit the influence of 51

owners on TV outlets. CEDEM will advocate for transparency of media financing by communicating with regulatory and relevant governmental agencies on the need to change anti-monopoly legislation and create the necessary conditions for the disclosure of the shadow media financing schemes. CEDEM will organize two expert discussions involving experts from the financial sector to generate ideas for how to address the issue. Public information about changes in media ownership: During the run-up to the 2019 elections several media companies changed hands. Monitoring such changes, especially at such a crucial moment in the life of a nation, is a matter of great public interest, as it allows citizens to know which interests national broadcast media are serving. Detector Media (DM) will produce long reads, analytical articles and infographics to help people learn who owns which media company, which could be a decisive factor about which media to trust for news. Owners linked to political candidates and parties should be transparent about these linkages and the public has a right to know when media sources are potentially biased. The stories will shed light on who owns which media holdings, and what other types of political and economic interests they have. Additionally, DM will focus on the pay TV market, film production industry etc. Stories will be shared on the Mediasapiens website and DM’s social media networks. Quantitative or qualitative targets DM will produce at least 36 materials and articles on changes in media ownership, state financing of film production, and reform of the paid TV market, which will be published on the DM website, 1,500 views average. CEDEM will continue to advocate transparency of media financing by providing analytics and organizing two expert discussions on this issue involving experts from the financial sector. Timeline for implementation DM will publish three articles per month from October 2019 through September 2020. CEDEM will organize two expert discussions regarding transparency of media financing: one before October 2019, another in February - May 2020.

3.2. Providing legal assistance

DO3 •Democratic Governance Strengthened

Context and Connection to the Objective Internews will support Ukrainian partners to provide learning opportunities and develop training materials for lawyers and judges dealing with access to information cases. To achieve the expected result of increasing media practitioners’ access to legal aid and protection, MPU will provide grants to local partners providing legal consultations and trainings to journalists, facilitating access to prepublication legal screening, and defending media practitioners in lawsuits or cases of intimidation.

Implementing Partners

• Tom14 • Kharkiv Press Club (KPC) • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) • Albany Associates • Institute of Mass Information (IMI) • Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI)

Partner Activities and Steps The Ukrainian journalistic community faces diverse risks because of its professional activity. Ukrainian media professionals, lawyers and judges need access to peer consultations, training opportunities, and opportunities for international exchange. Internews will support consultation services on complex media law matters (especially where two laws contradict each other and it is unclear which has precedence), and the application of international laws and treaties. To this end, CEDEM will support journalists and media outlets by providing high-quality legal consultations via the online consultation section of CEDEM’s website, as well as consultations via email (CEDEM hotline’s [email protected]) and telephone consultations (approx. 100 targeted consultations in total).

In order to enhance the right of citizens to access public information, CEDEM will support instruments that help improve implementation of the Law “On access to public information,” as well as protect general Freedom of Information (FOI) rights in balance with privacy and personal data protection. CEDEM will organize a training on FOI for 25 judges of the first instance, appeal and cassation courts. This training will focus on improving legal decision- making and consistent judicial practice. Training will be organized with the cooperation of the Council of Judges of Ukraine. CEDEM will also mentor new media lawyers by running a Media Law Summer School – an annual professional educational program. Summer school participants will present and discuss key rules of media legislation with the latest amendments and policy briefs on modern challenges on freedom of speech and information issues. The participants will also study the legal regulation of television and radio broadcasting, issues of copyright and access to information. Particular attention will be given to the European media law standards, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. The school will be complemented by practical moot court competitions based on the Oxford moot court model.

Legal advocacy and consultations for media law reform: The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) will advocate for and support Ukrainian media outlets that apply for help with legal issues relating to access to information, maintain working groups with law- enforcement agencies to promote more effective investigations into attacks on journalists, work on new draft media legislation to protect freedom of speech online and the status of online media, and promote the adoption and implementation of legislation on access to information developed by IMI in 2018 with Internews support. IMI will work with journalists, media, officials and law-enforcement agencies to promote improved implementation.

Hotline Election Coverage Help: IMI will run a hotline to provide legal assistance to journalists/media outlets around the country. IMI will post advice on its website and promote the advice and legal advice services (through online messenger services like Viber and WhatsApp) to let media and journalists know they have a service to turn to for advice on legal problems they may face within the new political landscape. Media Lawyers Uber: Internews wants to make it easier for media outlets and individual journalists and bloggers to find and contact media lawyers operating all around the country. To that end, Internews supported the creation of a kind of “Uber” for media lawyers – as well as a searchable database of lawyers, the website provides legal resources, case studies, and learning tools for media lawyers. Media lawyers who join the network will get VIP access to this web resource, as well as early-bird chances to access any training opportunities for media lawyers provided under the Media Program in Ukraine. Tom14 developed and launched the database and platform in August 2019 with initial profiles of 25 lawyers. The online platform provides information about media lawyers’ location, contact details, legal specializations, previous wins and losses, previous clients, and typical rates. Tom14 media lawyers will also provide regional legal consultations to anti-corruption activists, represent them in court, provide professional support during pre-trial investigations, help with drafting statements, complaints, and other documents. Since working on highly sensitive topics carries legal risks, the activity also increases the security of regional journalists and activists, mitigating the legal risks associated with their activities. Legal Assistance Center for media in Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk: Kharkiv Press Club will create a Legal Assistance Center focusing on media in Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions, to provide media practitioners with advice and support on legal issues that may affect them (e.g. defamation suits) as well as pre-publication audits. An in-house lawyer will be available for consultation full time, and if they are not able to provide court representation they will connect them with services provided by other media lawyers through Internews’s network of partners with expertise in this area (e.g. RPDI, CEDEM, IAB, Tom14). KPC will provide support on topics such as access to public information, violation of journalists' rights, legal aspects of work in the conflict zone, and defamation law. KPC will reach out to journalists/media in Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Donetsk to let them know that this facility is available to them. RPDI will continue providing comprehensive legal assistance to journalists and media practitioners to reduce the external pressure on journalists and media, decrease self-censorship and improve the media environment. RPDI lawyers will provide 50 legal consultations, including preparation of legal documents; 30 pre-publication screenings for UA:PBC, Schemes, and Slidstvo.info among others; and support for at least five court cases. Improving Ukrainian judges’ understanding of access to information laws: Albany Associates will set up a new round of activities to foster greater know-how and support for Ukrainian judges and senior media lawyers regarding legislation on access to information, by organizing study tours and key expert interviews in EU countries with relevant and relatable experience for Ukraine. These activities will be designed to help judges understand how access to information laws work elsewhere in Europe and will facilitate knowledge exchange with a set of interlocutors in EU countries that will be the most relevant to the Ukrainian context. In 54

Y2 Albany will work with CEDEM to arrange in country pre- and post-study tour activities to enhance interaction between the study tour participants and foster knowledge sharing after the tour ends. Quantitative or qualitative targets IMI will carry out 40 legal consultations for journalists and media regarding media legislation and implementation of reforms, and 40 consultations on standards, ethics, fakes etc. Tom14 estimates lawyers will provide at least 300 consultations and pre-publication evaluation of materials, submit up to 80 statements, appeals, and complaints, and represent 15 cases in court. KPC estimates providing 120 legal consultations for media workers from Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. CEDEM will support journalists and media outlets by providing 100 legal consultations. 25 judges and court specialists of the first instance, appeal and cassation courts will be trained by CEDEM on access to public information and balance with privacy and personal data protection. 15 lawyers will increase their knowledge during CEDEM’s Media Law Summer School. RPDI lawyers will provide: 50 legal consultations, 30 pre-publication screenings, and support for five court cases. Albany Associates will arrange a study tour for between eight to 10 judges and senior media lawyers in June 2020. Timeline for implementation IMI will begin regular legal consultations in September 2019 and finish in September 2020. CEDEM’s legal consultations - October 2019-September 2020. CEDEM’s training on FOI for judges and court specialists – March 2020. CEDEM’s Media Law Summer School – July 2020. RPDI will provide comprehensive legal assistance during October 2019 – September 2020. KPC legal assistance will take place from October 2019 till September 2020. Tom14 will provide legal assistance in October 2019 – September 2020. Albany Associates will arrange a study tour for between eight to 10 judges and senior media lawyers in June 2020.

3.3. Supporting advocacy and oversight

DO3 •Democratic Governance Strengthened

Context and Connection to the Objective MPU will invest in the participation of Ukrainian advocates for media law reform in related global forums. Internews will ensure high-level engagement of Ukrainian government, self- regulatory, civil society and media actors in global efforts to address disinformation. We will facilitate Ukrainian participation in internet policy events like the Internet Freedom Festival. A grant pool for collective advocacy initiatives will encourage formation of non-traditional partnerships (e.g. with internet freedom advocates, internet service providers, and artists) to carry out public campaigns that catalyze citizen engagement with freedom of expression issues. Potential Implementing Partners

• Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) • Internews Ukraine (IUA) • Institute of Mass Information (IMI) • Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) • Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) • Detector Media (DM) • Suspilnist Foundation • Independent Media Council (IMC) • Journalists’ Ethics Commission (JEC)

Partner Activities and Steps Promoting active participation of Ukrainian media law and advocacy in international forums: Internews will work with Ukrainian NGOs specializing in media law to identify opportunities to showcase the problems faced by Ukrainians in dealing with disinformation and media law reform in an international setting. Internews´ partner CEDEM will make an effort to build bridges with the regional office of Facebook to help it set up an international supervisory body to change its internal privacy policies, as well as improve their algorithms for identification of fakes, disinformation, hate speech, copyright violation and other abuses that may lead to restricting or blocking FB users´ accounts. CEDEM will also advocate in support of the Tromso Convention - a convention of the Council of Europe on access to official documents signed by nine countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Lithuania, Moldova and Estonia. This document aims to bring the regulation on access to public information up to the level of a convention, while currently it is covered mostly by national legislation. Ukraine signed the convention in 2018, but its ratification failed due to some strong populist opposition in parliament. Countries need to ratify in order to enact the convention. Ratification would not only expand and detail the provisions in the national legislation on access to public documents, but also strengthen the image of Ukraine as an advocate of rights and freedoms in the international arena, and create a mechanism of inter-state collaboration through which to share best practices on freedom of information. 56

Internews will liaise with organizations running major international forums regarding the participation and active promotion of Ukrainian topics and panels. Internews will work with CEDEM, IMI, RPDI, the NCTR, DM and others to identify the best experts to include in these efforts. Collective Advocacy Initiatives: Internews will launch a call for joint advocacy initiatives and provide subgrants to the most innovative and creative partnerships and ideas. We anticipate that partners such as IMI, IUA, CEDEM, DM, IAB, SF, the Independent Media Council, and the Journalists’ Ethics Commission are likely to apply for these opportunities, but we will also encourage applications from Ukraine’s regions. This grant pool will attract NGOs that are interested in joining forces to promote advocacy and/or oversight of media law reforms. Applications will be selected according to the quality of the advocacy concept, the relevance to the achievement of the objective of strengthening monitoring and advocacy by Ukrainian organizations in support of the legal environment for press freedom, whether the partnerships are creative and involve non-traditional stakeholders, and the extent to which they involve partners in the regions (in particular in the East and South). Internews will select independent experts to adjudicate on the applications and select the best proposals. Quantitative or qualitative targets CEDEM will organize 1 expert event and will make 2-3 public statements on ratification of Tromso convention. Timeline for implementation CEDEM’s expert event – November-December 2019.

CEDEM’s public statements - October 2019-May 2020.

Internews will launch a grant pool for law advocacy coalitions in October 2019.

OBJECTIVE 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions and processes

Expected results for Objective 4: • Media governance institutions and feedback mechanisms strengthened • Models for regulatory, self-regulatory, and co-regulatory approaches developed • Innovative partnerships between media practitioners and non-traditional stakeholders established • Digital security practices by journalists and organizations strengthened and institutionalized • Media organizations’ business development, financial, and management skills improved • Strategic Sustainability Plan to ensure long-term local media actors' engagement in democratic process developed

Summary of activities to be carried out under Objective 4 to achieve the above expected results: • Internews will hold the Third National Media Talk – a national media gathering for frank discussions about the challenges and opportunities facing Ukraine’s media sector – in October 2019, this year focusing on self-regulatory and co-regulatory approaches for effective governance in the media sector. • The UA:PBC’s Supervisory and Executive Management Boards have seen a turbulent period in 2019 and Internews plans to help both boards work on more constructive relations with one another through expert consultation and moderated discussions, as well as clearly defining the roles of each in their oversight functions according to the Law on Public Service Broadcasting. • Internews partners will coordinate events (roundtables, discussions, informal gatherings) on self-regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms for the media sector. The Media for Conscious Choice movement (with over 70 signatories including journalists, media watchdogs and media companies) will work on improvements to media regulation and strengthening media governance institutions. • In Y2, Internews will focus on engaging self-regulatory organizations like the Independent Media Council (IMC) and the Commission for Journalists’ Ethics in projects that improve the functioning of feedback mechanisms for citizens to report on ethical violations, advocate for media self- and co-regulation as priorities and attempt to come to a joint vision on the establishment of a press card system. • The Media Program in Ukraine will support of the founders of the Independent Media Council (Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Internews Ukraine, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, and Suspilnist Foundation) to monitor the preparation by the ruling party of the law on audiovisual services, publicizing potential advantages/disadvantages, and consolidating the key functions of the council. • The Suspilnist Foundation will support the formation of a group of young advisors to the Independent Media Council and establish a National Press Club to coordinate professional gatherings to promote self-regulation, share experience among leaders of media reforms in Ukraine and abroad, and strengthen advocacy networks. The National Press Club will be a forum to establish innovative partnerships and coalitions on media reforms among civil society organizations, organizations that support the media sector, private sector groups and groups aimed at developing journalistic solidarity. • The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) will launch the Whitelisting project, an effort to promote a healthy commercial environment in conjunction with incentivizing professional journalism ethics. In Y2 IMI will work on the criteria for being included in the Whitelist, organize regular meetings with editors-in-chief of online media to promote the key principles of whitelisting, adapt the methodology for TV as well as online media, develop a separate webpage for the project, monitor national and regional online media for infringements of the Whitelist ethical rules, and promote Whitelisted media to top advertisers, marketing and IT companies, and other stakeholders in Ukraine. • Internews will defend freedom of expression online by supporting a coalition of non- governmental organizations and business associations, to be coordinated by Internews Ukraine. The coalition will work with government agencies to promote dialogue

between civil society and government and prevent negative developments related to internet regulation. • Internews Ukraine will run a Digital Security School and provide in-depth mentoring and recommendations on safety and security online for three independent regional outlets. Four “Friday Security Nights” will be run as networking and training events on new trends in digital security for local and national journalists and civic activists on a quarterly basis. • Internews will work with consultants and partners to develop the strategic objectives to achieve the self-reliance of the media sector as part of the task of producing a sustainability plan for independent media watchdogs and civil society organizations once USAID assistance is over. Internews will organize a series of strategic sessions with media organizations and potential investors in independent media sector to come up with realistic objectives and potential models of sustainability.

4.1. Supporting pivotal governance mechanisms

DO3 •Democratic Governance Strengthened

Context and Lessons Learned To address the challenges facing the media sector within the new political environment, after the presidential and parliamentary elections brought to power a single political party (Servant of the People), and to advance democratic processes in the media sector, Internews will increase its efforts in assistance to media organizations to develop self-regulatory and co- regulatory mechanisms protecting freedom of speech and strengthening media governance mechanisms. Internews will facilitate constructive professional relations between the primary regulatory body for media in Ukraine (the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council (NTRC)), the self-regulatory body established by a group of media organizations in 2015 (the Independent Media Council (IMC)), the Commission for Journalists’ Ethics, media organizations and outlets, the Media Movement for Conscious Choice, relevant parliamentary committees, and the public.

In consideration of the crucial importance of public broadcasting to improving Ukraine’s democratic media landscape, Internews will continue providing technical assistance to the Supervisory Board of UA:PBC (the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine) to strengthen its capacity and improve its effectiveness.

Implementing Partners

Internews staff will continue coordinating most of the activities under Objective 4. Core partners and other experts will be involved in co-organizing events on pivotal governance mechanisms.

Among those: • Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) • Detector Media (DM) • Institute of Mass Information (IMI) 59

• Suspilnist Foundation (SF) • Internews Ukraine (IUA) • Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP)

Project Activities and Steps

Internews, in tandem with the Independent Association of Broadcasters, Internews Ukraine, Detector Media, Suspilnist Foundation, Institute of Mass Information, Academy of Ukrainian Press, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, and the public broadcaster UA:PBC, will organize the third National Media Talk. The National Media Talk has become an important venue for frank dialogue between different media sector players – national media organizations and commercial companies, individual journalists and experts, government and civil society representatives. The National Media Talk planned for October 2019 will focus on self-regulatory and co-regulatory approaches for building effective governance in the media sector. After President Zelenskyy’s team came into office in late May 2019, the president’s head of administration publicly declared that the media are no longer needed as a communication conduit between government and society. This statement provoked a series of discussions within the media community. Among the new team’s publicly announced initiatives are plans to merge state regulators – the National Council for TV and Radio and the State TV and Radio Committee – make changes to the parliamentary committees (including those related to media and freedom of speech), pass an array of new laws for the media sector (including the law on audiovisual services which is part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement), deoligarchize the national television market, merge the public broadcaster (UA:PBC) and the state-owned UA|TV (international multimedia broadcaster and online platform), among others. These issues, and any progress made on them by the fall, will be part of the conversations at the Third National Media Talk. Internews’ partners will delegate representatives to a working group to advise on the agenda, selection of speakers and moderators, formats for discussions, and follow-up activities. Around 200 participants will attend, representing media managers, public officials, bloggers and media civil society from all over Ukraine. To strengthen the governance mechanisms of the public broadcaster (UA:PBC), Internews will continue to support UA:PBC’s Supervisory Board to work on constructive relations with the UA:PBC management board and implement its functions according to the law on public service broadcasting. Internews will help the Supervisory Board to employ a lawyer to act as a secretary dealing with complaints and legal matters. To increase the Supervisory Board’s professional capacity, Internews will support bringing best international practices to Ukraine’s public broadcaster through study visits of Executive Management and Supervisory Board members to meet with successful counterparts in Europe.

To develop models for streamlined media regulation and strengthen media governance institutions, Internews will coordinate events (discussions, informal gatherings) on self- regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms for the media sector. Internews partners Internews Ukraine, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Suspilnist Foundation, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (all are members of the Media for Conscious Choice Movement) will participate in Internews’ initiatives and organize a number of solidarity actions and statements to consolidate media professionals around the idea of honest

journalism and involve state regulators in constructive dialogue.

Note: The Media for Conscious Choice movement was launched on February 5, 2019, and was designed to provide citizens with the chance to elect the president and the parliament on the basis of complete, reliable and objective information in the media. The leading Ukrainian media – TV channels, radio stations, print and online outlets, as well as media NGOs – participate in the movement. The first signatories of the Movement memorandum were UA: Pershy, Ukrainian Radio, Hromadske Radio, Ukrinform, Interfax-Ukraine, Liga.net, Mirror Weekly, Novoe Vremya, Cenzor.Net, Channel 5, Ukrainian Week, Opinion, a number of regional media, Independent Media Council, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law, Suspilnist Foundation, Independent Association of Broadcasters, Donetsk Institute of Information, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, Center for Human Rights Zmina, Regional Press Development Institute and other organizations, and individual journalists – over 70 signatories in total. Internews partners will coordinate with the Independent Media Council (IMC) and the Commission for Journalists’ Ethics to develop feedback mechanisms for citizens to report on ethical violations, prioritize media self- and co-regulation and come to a joint vision on the establishment of a press card system. The Media Program in Ukraine will assist self- regulatory bodies in establishing better functioning of their secretariats to process complaints, and communicate with the media community, donors, the state regulator, and state institutions influencing the agenda of the media industry. The Independent Media Council (IMC) and the Commission for Journalism Ethics will be consultative bodies to the MediaCheck complaint mechanism operated by IMI and DM through their websites. This mechanism provides media professionals and the general public with interactive methods to report violations of professional journalism standards. IMI and DM plan to provide journalists with around 50 action-oriented consultations annually on how to use the mechanism. They will prepare monthly reviews and submit complaints to those media that committed violations, as well as to the IMC and the Commission for Journalism Ethics. Newly elected member of parliament for the Servant of the People Party Olexandr Tkachenko (the former director general of 1+1 national TV company owned by Igor Kolomoyskiy and current candidate for the chair of the Parliamentary Humanitarian Committee), gave an interview to Detector Media in which he said that the law on audiovisual services is likely to be adopted by the end of 2019. This law has the potential to have a major impact on media regulatory mechanisms. Internews partner CEDEM, a founder of the Independent Media Council in 2015, together with four other major media NGOs (Internews Ukraine, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, and Suspilnist Foundation), will monitor each step of the preparation of this law and publicize a joint professional analysis of the advantages and disadvantages for the sector of the new draft law. The founders of IMC will also focus on the institutionalization of some of IMC’s key activities and their wider promotion by conducting public events in Kyiv, including a forum on self- and co-regulation. The discussions will involve journalists, media professionals, and state regulatory bodies. The talks will be held to generate solutions that can be proposed through follow-up advocacy. In an effort to enhance the role of the Independent Media Council in the process of establishing media self-regulation mechanisms, Suspilnist Foundation (SF) will draw in a 61

younger generation of journalists to the IMC’s activities. SF will increase the capacity of its Media Interns Association (alumni of the Media Mobility internship program implemented with Internews’ support) and attract a group of young advisors to work in the Independent Media Council. SF’s team will hold a series of discussions and expert roundtables on self-regulation in the media sector aimed at confidence building in the media market, and cooperation of journalists of different generations on the topics:

• How to create a healthy media environment in Ukraine? • Why is it advantageous to produce quality content? • Who can call themselves a journalist today? • What are the threats to journalism in accepting interference in editorial policy?

SF will facilitate professional networking and discussions on self-regulatory topics through promotion of the model of the National Press Club, with an office in Kyiv (most likely in the premises of UA:PBC). In addition to professional gatherings keeping the topic of self- regulation on the agenda, the National Press Club will bring leaders of media reforms in Ukraine and abroad together in order to strengthen innovative partnerships and coalitions on media reforms among civil society organizations, organizations that support the media sector, private sector groups and groups aimed at developing journalistic solidarity. Quantitative or qualitative targets • The participants of the Third National Media Talk 2019 will be around 200 journalists, media managers, public officials, bloggers and media CSO representatives from all over Ukraine. • IMI and DM will conduct 50 action-oriented consultations to journalists regarding use of the online complaint mechanism. • CEDEM will organize one expert event and one public event on self- and co- regulation (20 journalists and representatives of media NGOs will participate in each of them). • SF will hold a series of 20 discussions and expert round tables on the issues of self- and co-regulation.

Timeline for implementation • The third National Media Talk will be held in October 2019. • Partners’ activities will be scheduled for October 2019-September 2020. • CEDEM’s expert event will be organized in November or December 2019. • CEDEM’s public event will be organized in the period of February-June 2020.

4.2. Strengthening and expanding partnerships and coalitions

DO3 •Democratic Governance Strengthened

Context and Lessons Learned The viability of media organizations and outlets depends on both financial sustainability and

audience trust. Many managers of independent media outlets from the regions voiced their concerns at two National Media Talks, organized by Internews in 2017 and 2019, about the lack of opportunities for revenue because of the limitations of the advertising market. Campaigning by political parties and blocs to gain more supporters by promoting their leaders in local media make regional outlets vulnerable to the temptation of taking money for providing political services. The 2019 election campaigns showed that the winning presidential candidate and political party communicated more through entertainment shows and social media outreach than traditional political advertising. The experience raises questions about the usefulness of traditional advertising for political parties, and for the media in terms of the ways in which they provide information (for profit) about parties and candidates during elections. This is particularly relevant because 2020 is also an election year at the local level.

Internews’ intervention will focus on improving financial viability and business management in media by fostering partnerships between media practitioners and non-traditional actors (such as technology professionals, social entrepreneurs, industry associations, artists, and digital security experts). Regional hubs (mostly on the basis of press clubs) will continue to serve as coordination bodies providing opportunities for media professionals to share experiences, ideas, and insights, and build advocacy coalitions around issues of common interest (such as internet freedom, community media development, open government, and others) to promote democratic solutions. Internews’ activities within this sub-objective will support the Private Sector Engagement Policy of USAID, since partnerships between independent media and commercial (private) non-traditional media players will be encouraged.

Internews will use its United for News (UnF) initiative to educate media owners and managers about the business case for running only genuine, objective stories (as promoted by UnF partner Vodafone) and amplifying women’s voices (as inspired by UnF partner Bloomberg’s lead). Internews will also facilitate meetings between media outlets, watchdog groups, and business leaders (like Dragon Capital, which finances Novoe Vremya) to discuss ways to promote corporate social responsibility and work together to build a more democratic society.

Implementing Partners

Internews staff will coordinate activities under this activity. Core partners, important media sector players and regional press clubs will be involved: • Internews Ukraine (IUA) • Detector Media (DM) • Institute of Mass Information (IMI) • Suspilnist Foundation (SF) • Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) • Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) • Regional press hubs and clubs (Kharkiv Press Club, Ternopil Press Club, Institute of Political Information).

Project Activities and Steps

Whitelisting: In Year 1 of the Media Program in Ukraine, Internews introduced Ukrainian media sector stakeholders to the idea of the Whitelist (establishing a list of independent ethical media and driving advertisers towards those spaces) through an array of national and regional discussions. MPU partners coordinated the events with the Independent Media Council and the Commission for Journalists’ Ethics. The benefits of a healthy commercial environment and professional journalism standards was a key theme of the 2019 National Media Talk, with a presentation about whitelisting introduced by a speaker from United for News. The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) carried out research into the viability of whitelisting in 2019 and plans to further develop and promote the activity in Year 2 of the Media Program.

IMI developed a whitelisting methodology in line with the international concept. The National Media Talk presentation was popular with media attendees and IMI has continued to receive requests from media representatives about how to get involved. During Year 2, IMI will expand activities to include regular meetings with editors-in-chief of online media to promote the key principles of whitelisting; adapting the methodology for TV; developing a separate webpage for the project, promoting whitelisting by direct communication with the stakeholders; regular monitoring of national and regional online media for whitelisting; piloting TV monitoring; negotiations with top advertisers, marketing and IT companies, and other stakeholders in Ukraine. Commercial advertisers will be encouraged to make changes in their marketing strategies, channeling advertising to trustworthy media on the whitelist. IMI will develop a project logo and encourage partner media and companies (including advertisers) to share it.

Advocacy coalition to protect freedom of expression online: Internews will support a coalition of NGOs and business associations to work with government institutions on legislative initiatives related to internet regulation. Internews Ukraine (IUA), in cooperation with the Digital Security Lab, Human Rights Platform, Freedom House, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Ukrainian Foundation for Security Studies, Internet Association and Regional Press Development Institute will develop the Internet Regulation Index (IRI) to analyze the extent of the government’s influence on various internet freedom issues, and rate different legislative initiatives on their positive change potential. The military conflict in Ukraine and the cyberwar associated with it has become a backdrop for justifying violations of digital rights. Internet regulation in Ukraine requires urgent attention from the government, civil society, media, private sector and internet users. Internews Ukraine and its partners will create a system of oversight of the effectiveness of internet regulations to enhance civil society monitoring and advocacy for a just and free online space in Ukraine. Internews Ukraine will conduct working meetings for stakeholders in Y2 to discuss disinformation, privacy issues, and the impact of tech companies on users’ rights. The goal is to improve the quality of new legislative initiatives in Ukraine in the area of internet governance. The website Netfreedom.org.ua, run by Internews Ukraine, has been identified by stakeholders as the key online resource on internet freedom and digital rights in Ukraine. The platform will serve as a source of information in this field for the media sector, as well as the IT-sector, civil society, and government institutions. In Year 2, IUA will regularly update the website and promote its content through a social media marketing campaign.

Digital Security School: Internews Ukraine (IUA) will run a Digital Security School (DSS) in Y2 to introduce a program of sustainable digital security support for local media. The program will include a Digital Safety and Security consulting center to respond to urgent requests from media outlets and organizations, provide in-depth consultations and organize networking and training events at the national and regional levels. IUA will launch a series of educational content (10 videos and 10 articles) on the principles of digital security for journalists and media consumers that will be distributed on FB and up to 12 national and regional media platforms (e.g. Novoe Vremya, Ukrainska Pravda). IUA will select three media outlets to be audited for digital vulnerability and consulted on digital security. Two IUA digital security experts will carry out on-site audits and consultations for the selected outlets. As follow-up, the experts will provide the media teams with six months of remote mentoring and consultations to ensure that new digital safety protocols are being integrated into daily working processes. IUA will organize four “Friday Security Nights”: networking and training events on new trends in digital security for local and national journalists and civic activists on a quarterly basis.

Quantitative or qualitative targets • The whitelisting concept is developed and introduced to media and business communities. • A coalition for protection of freedom of expression on the internet is established. An Internet Regulation Index is developed and introduced to internet users and government institutions. • IUA will distribute 120 publications and 12 e-newsletters (in Ukrainian and English) covering internet freedom and digital rights topics on a monthly basis. • IUA will produce and distribute 10 educational videos and 10 articles on the principles of digital security for journalists and media consumers, within the framework of the Digital Security School.

Timeline for implementation

Activities will be scheduled for October 2019 - September 2020.

4.3. Laying the foundation for sustained local media actors’ engagement in democratic processes

DO3 •Democratic Governance Strengthened

Context and Connection to the Objective Internews will address this sub-level of Objective 4 using the principles of the USAID Journey to Self-Reliance (J2SR). USAID is reorienting the way it does business to focus on supporting its partner countries on the Journey to Self-Reliance – their ability to solve their own development challenges. This approach to development prioritizes fostering stable, resilient, prosperous, inclusive, and self-reliant countries. In relation to MPU, the focus is on ensuring that the Ukrainian implementers of USAID’s Media Program (media watchdogs, media policy advocacy organizations, media self-regulators, media training specialists, media

industry associations) are armed with a roadmap and the tools and resources they need by the end of the project, to ensure their own sustainability moving forward.

As part of this activity, MPU will develop a comprehensive, sector-wide Strategic Sustainability Plan to be completed by Y5, to prepare important organizations in the media sector for the end of USAID’s funding. In 2019, Internews conducted two feasibility studies to explore options to ensure long-term local media actors’ engagement in democratic processes and make an initial analysis of the philanthropy market in Ukraine.

In Year 2, Internews will make the next necessary steps towards the development of the Strategic Sustainability Plan for independent media sector players. Based on the two research reports, submitted by the external consultants at the end of Year 1, and the results of strategic sessions with partners, Internews will come up with the strategic objectives for the media sector’s self-reliance.

Implementing Partners

Internews staff will be responsible for implementation of this activity. External consultants will be hired when needed.

Project Activities and Steps

In Year 1 of the program, Internews conducted a Feasibility Study on a Legacy Mechanism for Media Sector Support in Ukraine, similar to the Pact-supported Feasibility Study in 2016. This study (done with the help of an external consultant) included an assessment of 17 national and regional organizations leading the media development sector (or identified as able to become leaders by the time the USAID Media Program in Ukraine is over). Internews and its external consultant used the Seat at the Table/Organizational Systems and Standards Index methodology (SATT/OSS), which was successfully applied during the previous U- Media program in 2011-2018. The assessment focused on organizational systems, leadership and staffing, organizational governance and health, visioning abilities, innovation, values, and domestic and international networking and advocacy.

Having analyzed the baseline competencies of important media sector players, in Year 2 of the program, Internews will develop strategic objectives for the media sector’s self- reliance. Internews staff, with the help of external consultants, will organize a series of strategic sessions with media organizations and potential investors in the independent media sector. When developing the agenda for these strategic sessions, Internews will take into account the competencies of important media sector players in forming the agenda for the media community, building coalitions, fundraising, and their ability to distribute grants.

An initial analysis of the state of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility in Ukraine, as well as an overview of the sustainability practices in the Eastern and Southern Europe, was part of Internews’ Feasibility Study in Year 1. When working on the strategic objectives for the media sector’s self-reliance in Year 2, Media Program staff will use the recommendations from the consultant’s report, “Potential Opportunities for Support of Media Sector Leaders in Ukraine.” Realistic models of funding independent media will be taken into consideration during the strategic sessions with the media sector players and candidates for their support. 66

In Year 2, Internews will collaborate with PACT/ENGAGE to achieve the common task of building sustainability models for media and civil society. Internews will negotiate with PACT’s international consultant to start work on a sustainability plan for our selected media partners in fall 2019 to develop the roadmap for further actions, outlining financial sustainability models for media watchdogs, service providers, and independent media companies.

The strategic objectives for the media sector’s self-reliance will be determined and reported on by the end of Year 2.

Quantitative or qualitative targets

Strategic objectives for media sector’s self-reliance are developed.

Timeline for implementation

Activities under this activity will be scheduled for October 2019-September 2020.

Gender The Media Program in Ukraine’s approach is based on Internews’ Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy, designed to improve programs and management from a gender standpoint. Through grant requirements and sharing inspirational examples, Internews will encourage reporting by, for and about women and that counters gender stereotypes. The Media Program will provide platforms for female experts to engage with the media and cultivate female opinion leaders through press hub activities and events. Professional exchanges will offer up-and-coming women opportunities to learn from leading women professionals. Internews’ Gender and Inclusiveness Expert will provide gender policy training for partners and advise on compliance with gender equality principles in their management policies and content. The Institute of Mass Information will also monitor media to assess stereotyping, attention to gendered factors in reform-related content, and the prevalence of women’s voices, which will be used to call partners’ attention to opportunities for improvement.

Based on the results of IMI monitoring of online media of gender balance that indicated only 30% of experts interviewed and quoted by media are women, Internews will support IMI to conduct three two-day trainings for 12 women experts each, including those from the regions, in order to boost their confidence, teach them how to communicate with journalists and make sure they are networked to local and national media on their topic.

IMI will carry out an annual event addressing women’s equality in media representation. The event will be an opportunity to present IMI’s gender monitoring results and to talk about the experience of reporting on gender-based violence, gender equality in politics, acts of sexism in media and communication form politicians. IMI will invite key stakeholders and encourage a discussion to find ways to improve the situation.

Internews will support Volyn Press Club (VPC) to implement gender awareness activities that will increase the level of public awareness on gender issues and decrease stereotypes 67

about women and men in society. The results of the media monitoring of regional media in 2019 show an increase in gender sensitivity by 4% (from 30% to 34%, according to the total Gender Sensitivity Index of regional media of 24 regions of Ukraine). By “increase in gender sensitivity” we mean that a larger proportion of women experts are interviewed for news and information reports and articles, there is more use of the female version of the names of professions and there are fewer stereotypes about women and girls in the media monitored. A positive development was the increase in the involvement of women as experts in journalistic material and the use of feminine or neutral names for professions (e.g. “business representatives” instead of “businessmen”). This improvement is very likely the result of VPC’s work with local media over the last three years. The next round of regional media monitoring will be in 2020. VPC will conduct regular gender monitoring of media products of local privatized newspapers to analyze the presence of women and men as subjects and experts in publications. This is a totally new experience for privatized media, so VPC will introduce them to a new standard to work towards. To build awareness that gender analysis is a vital component of the democratic reform process, VPC will hold three “Gender Media Schools”: a three-day training event for regional and district media journalists (20 people), a two-day training for managers and coordinators of the network of press clubs and press centers (22 people), and a three-day training for regional reporters (20 people) who will go on to hold gender media cafes in their regions for local audiences. To promote the development of best practices in gender-balanced reporting and to showcase female opinion leaders in media coverage on a variety of subjects, VPC will work with 10 regional and 10 rayon media to teach them how a gender-balanced policy affects different types of coverage: domestic, business, state policy, reforms agenda. To improve gender-sensitive language in reporting, VPC will develop gender-based visualization products (a schematic guide for journalists on creating gender-sensitive materials). VPC will organize a media content contest in July/August 2020 to increase the quantity and improve the quality of gender-sensitive content. VPC anticipates that at least 60 journalists will participate in the contest, and VPC experts will evaluate the materials. At the end of the year VPC will conduct a Gender Forum in Kyiv to analyze the results of its gender awareness activities in the regions and produce recommendations for further work in promoting a gender sensitive approach in reporting.

Inclusive Development The Media Program in Ukraine will work to enhance the political, social, and economic development and participation of the groups most discriminated against. In a recent UNDP- led survey, Ukrainians ranked equality as one of the priority fundamental human rights values, but at the same time the value of tolerance is only important to every fourth Ukrainian. The readiness of the population to restrict the rights of vulnerable populations remains quite substantial: as many as 66% of respondents believe the rights of drug addicts should be restricted, 56% justify restricting the rights of former convicts, and 51% are ready to restrict the rights of people with unpopular political views. Intolerance of Roma and LGBTI communities are also high - 47% each.

Internews is committed to building on programs developed with groups such as Insight and Fulcrum UA -Tochka Opory. This includes fostering local media that provide fair and 68

balanced coverage of gender and sexual minorities. Internews will collaborate with donors working on these issues, e.g. International Renaissance Foundation, DRL, SIDA, British Embassy, US Embassy, Freedom House, NDI and the Netherlands. MPU will also prioritize positive coverage of persons with disabilities including issues faced by persons newly disabled as a result of the conflict in the East. In this area Internews will collaborate with donors including UNDP, UNICEF, the Disability Rights Fund and the US Embassy. Expanding Internews’ support to conflict-affected communities, MPU will target populations most vulnerable to malign narratives, particularly those that seek to undermine Ukraine’s democratic reform process and European integration. To engage youth, MPU will support UA:PBC and its local affiliates to deliver improved and expanded content in youth-oriented formats, e.g. online news for mobile audiences, participatory debates, and infotainment.

Tom 14 will launch a new TV talk show on inclusivity: Chy Usi? (Are We All On Board?) This TV talk show is aimed at overcoming social divisions by giving a platform to hear the voices of underrepresented groups. The show will try to stimulate useful discussions both inside the groups and among a wider audience. Each episode will feature people with a common group identity (social, professional, political, or other, like LGBTI activists, Zelenskyy voters, etc.) presented with a series of statements. After the host makes a statement, the members of the group choose a position to stand on a grid, with the lines representing the scale of their attitude toward the statement: Completely Agree, Somewhat Agree, Somewhat Disagree, and Completely Disagree. After assuming a position, the participants engage in a discussion. After the discussion, the group returns to their original position. The group will be presented with 10-15 statements over the course of an episode. The format will explore the ways in which people with a common group identity can still hold varying opinions on the topic they are united around, which will show viewers that generalizations about groups of people are simplifications. The goal is to increase tolerance of a wide variety of views and debunk stereotypes. The show invites viewers to experience the breadth of the views of certain identities, making it harder to dismiss people out of prejudice against their group identity, which is a common way that social divisions manifest themselves. Audiences will gain a more nuanced picture of the society they live in as well as getting to know some of the individuals that make up group identities. Tom 14 will produce 40 episodes of the program (each 24 minutes long). The expected frequency of the episodes is one per week, broadcast on YouTube first with a view to broadcast on partner TV channels. Sustainability In the implementation process, Internews will use the principles of the USAID Journey to Self-Reliance (J2SR). USAID is reorienting the way it does business to focus on supporting its partner countries on the Journey to Self-Reliance, i.e. their ability to solve their own development challenges. This approach to development prioritizes fostering stable, resilient, prosperous, inclusive, and self-reliant countries. In relation to MPU, the focus is on ensuring that the Ukrainian implementers of USAID’s media program (media watchdogs, media policy advocacy organizations, media self-regulators, media training specialists, media industry associations) are armed with a roadmap and the tools and resources they need by the end of the project, to ensure their own sustainability moving forward. 69

Internews’ approach is to build local capacity and promote revenue diversification through creative fundraising and strategic partnerships. The Media Program in Ukraine will foster the development of diverse coalitions of stakeholders, including private sector partners and reform-minded officials interested in developing a culture of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. At the same time, the Program will work to strengthen and streamline existing local expertise and networks. For this purpose, Internews will work as a convening hub for organizations which are important for the media sector in terms of sharing local and international expertise on sustainable development.

Within its Objective 4, in Year 2, The Media Program in Ukraine will begin work on a sustainability plan for 17 major Ukrainian media organizations and companies. The study report on developing strategic objectives for the sector will be further used for development of support mechanisms for independent media institutions. Internews recognizes that sustainability will be achieved when media sector reforms are fully implemented, beneficiary media organizations and sector governance bodies take ownership of development processes and citizens demonstrate demand for civically-relevant news and information, and an ability to differentiate reliable sources from propaganda. The study on objectives and sustainability research will help independent media institutions play a leading role in moving these processes forward.