The Media Program in (MPU)

SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT October 1, 2018 –March 31, 2019

USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001

Ukraine’s national public broadcaster’s Countdown co-anchors, Myroslava Barchuk and Pavlo Kazarin

GILLIAN MCCORMACK CHIEF OF PARTY

DMITRI SURNIN REGIONAL MANAGER FOR EUROPE AND EURASIA

SUBMITTED: APRIL 30, 2019

Page 1 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Media Program in Ukraine (MPU) ...... 1

Acronyms ...... 3

Introduction ...... 4

Approach to Implementation ...... 6

Media Environment ...... 10

Summary of Results by Objective ...... 13 Objective 1: Increase high-quality, engaging content throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South 13 Objective 2: Increase public demand for quality information 14 Objective 3: Implement critical media reforms 15 Objective 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions and processes 15

Key Activities and Results by Objective ...... 17 Objective 1: Increase high-quality, engaging content throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South 17 Objective 2: Increase public demand for quality information 32 Objective 3: Implement critical media reforms 40 Objective 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions and processes 45

Environmental Compliance ...... 49

Communication & Coordination ...... 50

Challenges ...... 52

Mandatory Cross-Cutting Considerations ...... 54

List of Attachments ...... 56

Page 2 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019

Acronyms Acronyms AUP Academy of Ukrainian Press (www.aup.com.ua) CEDEM Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (http://cedem.org.ua/) CEC Central Election Commission CSO Civil Society Organization DG Democracy and Governance DII Donetsk Institute of Information DM Detector Media (http://detector.media/) EC European Commission ENGAGE Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement EU European Union GOU Government of Ukraine HR Hromadske Radio IAB Independent Association of Broadcasters (http://www.nam.org.ua/) IMI Institute of Mass Information (http://imi.org.ua/) IPC Information and Press Center (http://investigator.org.ua/) IPI Institute for Political Information IR Investigative Reporting IUA Internews Ukraine (http://www.internews.ua) KPC Kharkiv Press Club MSI Media Sustainability Index MEP Monitoring and Evaluation Plan MPU Media Project in Ukraine MW Mirror Weekly NGO Non-Governmental Organization OTI Office of Transition Initiatives POID Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (http://idpo.org.ua/) RPDI Regional Press Development Institute (http://www.irrp.org.ua/) RPR Reanimation Package of Reforms (http://rpr.org.ua/) SACCI Support to Anti-Corruption Champion Institutions SF Suspilnist Foundation (http://souspilnist.org/en/) TAPAS Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services TPC Press Club UA:PBC Ukraine’s Public Service Broadcaster (UA: Pershy and two other national TV channels, 23 regional branches and a radio channel) U-RAP Ukraine Responsive and Accountable Politics Program USAID US Agency for International Development VPC Volyn Press Club

Page 3 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Introduction

Internews respectfully submits the Media Program in Ukraine (MPU) Semi-Annual Report for the period of October 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.

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, U-Media will prioritize areas where independent media are under greatest strain and where local news is most vulnerable to malign, Kremlin-driven narratives.

MPU PURPOSE

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 of the program are: • High-quality, engaging content increased throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South • Public demand for quality information increased • Critical media reforms implemented • Key media institutions and processes strengthened and sustained

HIGHLIGHTS

Internews highlights the following accomplishments for the reporting period:

• MPU’s media partners (UA:PBC, Hromadske Radio, Internews Ukraine, Detector Media, Suspilnist Foundation, Information Press Center, Mirror Weekly, Institute of Political Information, Kharkiv Press Club, Ternopil Press Club) produced high-quality engaging TV, radio and online content about the elections, the reform process, and other important issues that reached over 10 million Ukrainians during this reporting period.

• UA:PBC’s new political talk show “Countdown” showcased the presidential candidates and tripled the public broadcaster’s audience for its time slot, reaching 8.5 million viewers in the two weeks running up to the first round vote. It was praised by Ukrainian media watchdogs and media commentators as being by far the most professional and impartial political talk show of all of the national TV channels, filling a big gap in what was otherwise a very polarized campaign. While other political talk shows were selective in the candidates they invited (often depending on the political preferences of the owner) with anchors asking soft-ball questions and giving unlimited time to reply, the Countdown stood out because it identified the top 18 candidates Page 4 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 according to reliable polls and invited all of them to attend; the anchors, experts in the studio and audience members asked tough questions; and the candidates were held to strict time-limits in their responses, monitored by a big studio chronometer.

• A group of long-term USAID U-Media and MPU partners started a movement called Media for Conscious Choice on their own initiative, gathering 65 national and regional media outlets, non-governmental organizations, and journalists in Ukraine under a banner of honest journalism, rejecting requests for hidden political advertising, and refusing to publish black PR (the practice of paying for broadcasting and publishing negative stories about competitors). While media solidarity under the previous regime of ex-President was galvanized under the banner of the Stop Censorship movement, in recent years Ukrainian media organizations have decried the lack of initiatives to come together and mutually respect professional media standards and ethics. In a major positive step forward for media self-regulation and standards, this new movement was created in February 2019, just in time for the presidential elections. Media for Conscious Choice has recently received 15 more requests from media outlets wanting to join the movement.

• IAB’s social media influencers campaign encouraged young people to get out and vote, with five Instagram influencers reaching 1.5 million people in two weeks. Singer and TV presenter Volodymyr Dantes got the highest number of individual views (over 120,000) with a video from his car as he was driving to Kharkiv, where he is registered as a voter. In the video, he described how this would be the first time he would be voting in an election, and called on young people to get off the sofa and exercise their right to vote.

• Odesa-based partner Institute of Political Information (IPI) designed the iVote online quiz, which people could use to see which of the candidates most closely aligned with their own views. The quiz used an algorithm that was based on correlating users’ interests and positions with the information provided by presidential candidates to the Central Election Commission (CEC). As a result, the quiz tended to throw up inconsistencies in the ways the candidates formally represented themselves in their official manifestos, and how they presented themselves differently depending on the region in which they were campaigning. The quiz created a national stir because it pointed out the fact that some of the presidential candidates had failed to mention important issues in their campaign platforms, such as where they really stand on membership of the EU and NATO. This prompted complaints from some candidates (e.g. ’s team in Odesa complained to IPI that the candidate did support Ukraine joining NATO and EU, although he did not mention this in his official manifesto to the CEC). Nearly 105,000 unique users took the iVote quiz.

• MPU partners’ media literacy efforts resulted in expanding the integration of media literacy into mandatory disciplines at secondary schools. The Academy of Ukrainian Press introduced six new media literacy modules at 129 schools throughout Ukraine; the modules were downloaded 13,403 times from the AUP media literacy portal. For the very first time, a workbook for the school textbook “I Explore the World” was approved and financed by the Ministry of Education and Science as a mandatory supplement and will be used at schools in the 2019-2020 academic year.

Page 5 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Approach to Implementation

MPU supports and develops Ukrainian media through activities that protect freedom of speech, improve the media-enabling environment, create opportunities for new and innovative approaches by Ukrainian media outlets, and strengthen media NGO leaders’ capacity to effectively represent their constituencies.

Project activities span four pillars of the Internews strategic framework for improving information ecosystems: access, inclusion, content, and engagement. Within Internews’ program implementation, the four pillars represent transparent access to information, advancing systemic inclusion of marginalized voices, filling gaps in quality content, and supporting people’s ability to critically engage with information.

MPU administers subgrants to Ukrainian civil society organizations (CSOs) and media organizations supporting an independent media, and media outlets’ increased access to public information, raising the media literacy level of Ukrainians, increasing public awareness of reforms, and nurturing a positive legal environment for media activities. Internews managers and technical advisors provide assistance and training to partners on professional journalism standards, media literacy initiatives, investigative journalism, and information campaigns on important issues for Ukrainians. MPU also supports institutional capacity-building for media organizations and outlets through subgrants, training, and networking activities.

Subgrantee Categories The subgrantee categories and subgrant types described below reflect different levels of institutional capacity and experience. At the conclusion of each fiscal year, Internews evaluates the organizational development progress of all its partners and makes adjustments with them in consultation with USAID. A detailed list of the subgrants and project descriptions can be found in Attachment 2.

Core Partners

Core partners are organizations that have been working with Internews for the past five to seven years (some for even longer), have strong track records as service providers, are leaders in their technical areas, and have made strides in developing their organizational capacity.

Core partners include:

1. Internews Ukraine (IUA) promotes critical media consumption to help citizens resist media manipulation and propaganda. IUA also focuses on communicating accurate Ukrainian news and explainers to an international audience (UA World International group), raising Ukrainian journalists’ awareness of reforms, quality content production on reforms, strengthening media institutions and processes, and improvement of digital security practices by journalists and organizations. 2. Detector Media (DM) conducts television media content monitoring, cultivates media literacy among Ukrainians, advocates for implementation of media sector reforms, and leads self-regulatory activities. 3. Institute of Mass Information (IMI) conducts national online and print media content monitoring, cultivates media literacy among Ukrainians, advocates for implementation

Page 6 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 of media sector reforms, leads self-regulatory activities, and defends journalists’ professional rights. 4. Suspilnist Foundation (SF) coaches future journalists and provides internships for graduate students of Bachelor’s and Master’s programs from the faculties of journalism of leading universities across Ukraine. SF also improves the quality of debate shows in Ukraine by curating youth-led online debates during elections. SF facilitates, initiates, and participates in self-regulatory activities. 5. Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) develops new and improves existing media literacy courses at schools of primary, secondary, and higher education, raises media literacy teachers’ qualifications, and advocates with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for the mandatory inclusion of media literacy into curricula of all school grades.

Partners implementing projects important for media sector development include:

1. National Public Service Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC) produces and broadcasts televised political talk shows covering contemporary issues in Ukraine, including during elections, and radio content raising public awareness of reforms. The goal is to build a strong and independent “National Public Service Broadcasting Company of Ukraine” (UA:PBC) by strengthening its regional affiliates, increasing the capacity of its Supervisory Board, and implementing Ernst & Young auditors’ recommendations for necessary improvements to UA:PBC’s internal systems and structures. 2. Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) focuses on increasing high-quality content by establishing a Format Lab, will launch an online video and audio content exchange platform, organizes the annual professional journalism contest Honor of Profession, runs a voter education campaign for youth “Go and Vote,” conducts a School of Advanced Convergent Media Programming, supports the implementation of critical media reforms, and strengthens key media processes through advocacy campaigns for destatization of municipal television and radio companies and for creating mechanisms of audiovisual content co-regulation, and provides legal support to regional broadcasters to ensure they work in line with Ukrainian legislation. IAB works with FakesRadar, a group of developers designing a plug-in for social media, a web platform, and an app that identify fake news in social media feeds and online searches. 3. Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) supports implementation of key media reforms (including destatization and media ownership transparency), helps to institutionalize UA:PBC (National Public Service Broadcasting Company) as an independent source of quality information, provides legal education and assistance to media practitioners, supports pivotal governance mechanisms in media, and strengthens and expands partnerships and coalitions in the media sector. 4. Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) monitors the content quality of newly privatized print/online media outlets (which have completed the destatization reform) in 24 regions across Ukraine (each of three waves of monitoring will cover eight regions). POID’s 24 regional experts (three in each of eight regions) examine media products for journalistic professionalism, political influence, hidden advertising, disinformation, and compliance with journalism ethics. POID also organizes regional discussions on media literacy issues with journalists, educators, judges, librarians, public officials, and youth. 5. Information Press Center (IPC) produces Crimea-focused TV and online content, implements investigative journalism training activities for improvement of this type of

Page 7 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 reporting in Ukraine, and serves as a media development hub for the South of Ukraine. The IPC’s Center for Journalist Investigations (CJI) portal http://investigator.org.ua/ and IPC’s flagship TV show “The National Security Issue” serve as sources of reliable news and high-quality multimedia content on Crimean, Donbas, and South of Ukraine issues for different target audiences – Crimea and Donbas residents, citizens in the South of Ukraine, international human rights organizations, anti-corruption bodies, and national government departments. 6. Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) improves journalists’ skills in investigative reporting and exchanging professional information, and provides legal assistance to media outlets and journalists. RPDI strengthens networks of investigative reporting by increasing the professional skills and collaboration of investigative reporters, increasing the quality and quantity of investigative reports, and by helping to increase audience engagement with high quality reporting around the country. 7. Hromadske Radio (HR) produces and broadcasts quality radio programs including political debate radio talk shows; radio programs explaining techniques of manipulation and distortion of information in media and other sectors; and unbiased information about reforms. 8. Mirror Weekly (MW) newspaper produces and distributes quality analytical content about the state of the reform process and the political and economic transformation in Ukraine, and organizes thematic roundtables about the most pressing issues that Ukrainians face. 9. TOM14 improves journalists’ skills in investigative reporting and exchanging information, and provides legal assistance to journalists. TOM14 will develop a user- friendly online resource for journalists to find information about political party and candidate financing during the elections, and an online platform to quickly find appropriate media lawyers for media support work around the country. 10. Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) organizes the Donbas Media Forum, a School of Media Quality for regional journalists, joint content production, and networking of media professionals who attend the Donbas Media Forum. 11. Institute of Political Information (IPI, Odesa) increases access to high-quality, engaging content in the South of Ukraine, improves coverage of the elections and raises awareness among residents of the South of Ukraine of the rollout and implementation of Ukraine’s reforms. 12. Kharkiv Press Club (KhPC) operates a hub (Media Hub Kharkiv) in the East of Ukraine providing journalists with opportunities to improve their professional skills, exchange information, share experiences and content from around the country, and receive legal assistance. Key activities include trainings, lectures, expert discussions, study/press tours, and exchanges for journalists from the regions. 13. Ternopil Press Club (TPC) helps regional media build sustainable outlets and complete the process of destatization, and provides opportunities for regional journalists to improve content production skills, exchange information, share experiences and content from around the country, receive legal assistance, and increase quality coverage of elections. 14. Volyn Press Club (VPC) enhances gender sensitivity among journalists from different regions of Ukraine, establishes systematic cooperation between regional journalists to improve reporting on issues that are important for women and girls, actively promotes female experts for analytical reporting and on-air discussions, and works to reduce gender stereotypes and improve news content quality across different formats.

Page 8 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019

Organizations implementing short-term projects:

In March 2019, Internews, with the help of 11 external experts, representing international and Ukrainian donors and implementers working in Ukraine (e.g. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Renaissance Foundation, NATO Information and Documentation Center, Ukrainian Foundation for Security Studies), selected 19 regional media organizations and companies to implement short-term projects with the goal of improving the Parliamentary elections coverage between May-October 2019. This selection was made within the Media Program in Ukraine’s grants competition “Improving Parliamentary Elections Coverage.” Further details about the 18 finalists (one organization withdrew its application) will be provided in the next semi-annual report, once the finalists have been approved by USAID.

Winners include: 1. Public organization “Analysis and Investigations Center,” 2. LLC Radio station “Velykyi Luh,” Zaporizhzhia 3. Lviv Press Club 4. Uzhhorod Press Club 5. Public organization “Bakhmut Fortress,” Donetsk region 6. NGO “Hromadske TV Cherkasy” 7. Key Animation Studio, Kyiv 8. NGO Research Center of Donbas Social Perspectives, OstroV online news agency, Kyiv (relocated from Donetsk) 9. NGO Media Development Foundation, Kyiv 10. Internews Ukraine, Kyiv 11. NGO Dirigible, Kyiv 12. NGO “Mykolaiv Center for Investigative Reporting” 13. Advertising and information agency K&K/media-holding “Telegazeta,” Starobilsk, Luhansk region 14. Public organization “Slobidsky Kray,” Kharkiv 15. LLC TRK Rivne1 16. Institute “Respublica,” Kyiv 17. Information Agency “LigaBusinessInform” (website Liga.net), Kyiv 18. LLC TRK “Orion,” Kharkiv

Page 9 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019

Media Environment

From the beginning of USAID’s Media Program in Ukraine (MPU) in October 2018, the media environment has faced a series of complex challenges arising from the Russian government’s disinformation campaign to present Ukraine as a failed state (among other things), the Ukrainian government’s efforts to defend itself from information warfare, continued oligarch control of the national television channels, and a lack of media industry solidarity around issues pertaining to professional standards, ethics, and responsibility for tackling media violations. The most immediate goal identified by Internews’ MPU team was how to address the need to provide Ukrainian citizens with reliable and trustworthy news and information with which to make important life decisions, particularly in an important election year for the country.

Russian-sponsored disinformation played a significant role in the lead-up to the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine, and threats from Russia both online and offline remain a very real concern. Russia’s disinformation campaign has moved largely online (Internews’ 2018 media consumption survey shows only 3 percent of Ukrainians now watch Russian TV, down from 25 percent five years ago) and has ramped up considerably during the election period. Media experts from Internews Ukraine (IUA), Detector Media (DM), and the Institute for Mass Information (IMI) monitored the Kremlin-controlled media and looked at how false Russian narratives about Ukrainian developments made their way into Ukraine’s media space. Journalist Tetyana Matychak identified eight streams of Kremlin disinformation publicized through Ukraina.ru, including the notion that the results of the first round of presidential elections were falsified, that the campaign was the dirtiest in Ukraine’s modern history, and that Washington had determined the election results. IMI found that major themes included fake reports that the Ukrainian army was shelling civilians in the East, that the elections were being rigged, and that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not really a church and more of a political project. Of these, IMI found that only the first was not distributed by Ukrainian media.

The Ukrainian government indicated that it is considering restrictive policy proposals that may increase limits to free expression in order to ensure the national security of Ukraine. This stance has framed the public debate as a choice between national security or freedom of expression, making it seem unpatriotic to publicly defend freedom of expression – and potentially leading to increased self-censorship, as well as divisions within networks of journalists and advocates. The challenges posed by Russian state aggression are serious, and Ukraine must devise reasonable approaches to protect its public sphere. Ukrainians are fiercely aware that they are on the front line in dealing with new forms of hybrid warfare, and many are inspired by the possibility that their efforts could eventually provide guidance and leadership to other countries dealing with Russian (or other) disinformation. The impact of emerging cybersecurity laws and policies remains unclear, but their broad nature makes them vulnerable to exploitation and potentially undermines the realization of fundamental democratic principles in Ukraine, such as governmental accountability and transparency, rights to due process, and balanced rule of law. MPU partners like IUA, IMI, Donetsk Institute of Information (DII), Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP), and DM are part of the FreeNet Ukraine Coalition that is working to ensure that civil society actors have a seat at the table during these sensitive and important decision-making processes. MPU has a number of upcoming grant opportunities for coalitions and coordinated campaigns that strengthen the role of civil society in protecting

Page 10 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 freedom of expression and promote self-regulation and co-regulation as sound democratic alternatives to stricter government controls without oversight.

Oligarch control of Ukraine’s most popular national television channels (Ukraina, 1+1, Inter, STB, ICTV, Pryamyi, News One, 112, Channel 5) is nothing new, however the positions of owners and their influence over content became a more critical problem in the run-up to presidential elections. MPU partners and respected local media watchdogs DM, IMI, and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) monitored media bias and disinformation across the highest rated national TV channels and online media resources, as well as a number of privatized regional newspapers around the country. In the run-up to the elections, they used press conferences and reports to highlight the use of hidden advertising to promote candidates and stories that presented Russia’s self-interested dystopian view of Ukrainian developments. IMI found that and were the most flagrant in their use of hidden promotions of their candidacies in online media, while DM called out a number of national TV political talk shows for biased and one-sided positive coverage of a small number of the more than 40 presidential candidates. POID pointed to the prevalence of fake opinion polls touting diverse candidates as the front-runners, sometimes being published in the same newspaper on the same day. While media coverage was described by international election observers as providing a semblance of pluralism of opinion, the effect was a plethora of content that was confusing and often failed to shed a critical light on the promises and qualities of the competing candidates.

Internews’ longstanding Ukrainian media partners responded to this problem with a bid to restart professional solidarity amongst media companies, by taking their own initiative to launch a new movement called Media for Conscious Choice in February 2019. The initiators were the Independent Media Council, DM, IMI, IUA, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM), Suspilnist Foundation (SF), Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB), and the POID. The movement invited media companies to sign a memorandum committing them to distribute balanced, reliable information to citizens, to reject black PR (the practice of paying for broadcasting and publishing negative stories about competitors), and to prevent bribery of journalists. An initial group of 65 prominent national and regional media outlets, journalists, and NGOs signed immediately, including Ukraine’s public service broadcaster UA:PBC, Ukrinform, Interfax Ukraine, Novoe Vremya, Weekly Mirror, and Channel 5. Since then, the movement has received 15 more requests from media companies to join.

The transformation of Ukraine’s nationwide state TV and radio company into a public service broadcaster was one of the first great legislative reform victories that followed the Revolution of Dignity. The law on the transition to public service broadcasting passed in April 2014, and led to the creation of the new UA Public Broadcasting Company (UA:PBC) in 2017. In 2018, an independent Supervisory Board and a new head of the Management Board were selected in a transparent and rigorous process. The appointment of these leadership institutions was seen as key to guaranteeing the independence of UA:PBC from political interference. Over the last two years a massive reform has been undertaken at UA:PBC, a company that broadcasts nationwide and has 56 local TV and radio affiliates serving communities all around the country. It has undergone a sizeable reduction in staff (from over 7,000 to just over 4,500 employees), introduced 45 new programs (from children’s fairy tales to anti-corruption investigative reporting shows), transformed its news services into professional, balanced journalism serving the public interest, and grown radio audiences by more than 60 percent. However, its national television ratings have improved only gradually over the last two years,

Page 11 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 and UA:PBC languishes in ratings behind other generously funded oligarch-controlled national television companies.

Further progress is being stymied by parliament’s decision last year and in its latest draft law on the state budget to underfund UA:PBC by over 40 percent. The law “On Public Broadcasting of Ukraine” provides guarantees for appropriate financing, to be no less than 0.2 percent of the general state budget for Ukraine in the previous year (Article 14). In practice, a legislative collision arises with the Budget Code, which allows the Cabinet of Ministers to suspend the rules on financial guarantees to the broadcaster. The result is that in a state budget draft passed in its first reading on October 18, 2018, UA:PBC was allocated UAH 1 billion, instead of UAH 1.8 billion. Similar cuts in 2017 led to the suspension of analogue transmission (particularly affecting rural communities and the elderly) and the accumulation of debts for broadcast transmission and membership costs for the European Broadcasting Union.

Parliamentarians point to low ratings and the myriad of other draws on the public purse to justify the cuts. The decision to hamper the development of the only national broadcaster not beholden to special political interests was deeply regrettable, particularly in the run-up to elections. The situation was worsened when UA:PBC’s Supervisory Board took an unexpected decision at the end of January 2019 to dismiss UA:PBC executive director Zurab Alasania, officially on the grounds of “mismatch of the position” (this was not elaborated but will require further detail for the forthcoming legal challenges to the dismissal). The announcement caused a scandal and speculation about the independence of the board, since the decision to sack the broadcaster’s manager in advance of the presidential and parliamentary elections looked politically-motivated. Alasania had shown he was independent and not vulnerable to interference in editorial decision-making. He made no friends, for example, in the presidential administration when he allowed the Panama Papers documentary about ’s efforts to set up an offshore company while president, to be shown on UA:Pershy (UA:PBC’s national television channel).

In February 2019 the board met again and voted to postpone the termination of Alasania’s contract until after the presidential elections. Alasania and a member of the board who disagreed with the decision both brought court cases in an effort to block the dismissal, in suits that are still ongoing. In the meantime, Internews decided to continue with its mission under USAID’s media project to support UA:PBC and financed a political talk show that would provide a welcome and impartial alternative to the low-quality candidate debates and political shows on the other national TV channels. The “Countdown” show was a resounding success, drawing three times the usual audience for the channel in its time slot and reaching 8.5 million viewers in the two weeks running up to the first round of the presidential elections.

Page 12 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Summary of Results by Objective

Objective 1: Increase high-quality, engaging content throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South • Media partners of the MPU program produced high-quality engaging content about the elections, the reform process, and other important issues that reached at least 10,259,167 Ukrainians during this reporting period. • Ukraine’s public broadcaster UA:PBC launched a new political talk show in time for the presidential elections that competed successfully against the other national channels, providing a unique impartial and entertaining format for testing the presidential candidates’ platforms. The “Countdown” tripled UA:PBC’s audience for the time slot, reaching 8.5 million viewers in the two weeks running up to election day. • MPU supported high-quality journalism at Mirror Weekly with a series of articles and explainers about the elections, the reform process, the energy sector, consumer rights, etc. that reached 265,000 online and newspaper readers and were shared by around 70 other media outlets around the country. • Internews Ukraine responded to the introduction of martial law at the end of 2018 by arranging a training for 15 senior editors and managers of media outlets operating in the affected regions. The training covered crisis management and the legal ramifications of operating under martial law and military emergency. IUA produced guidelines for journalists in military zones and distributed them to 60 media outlets around Ukraine. • Internews Ukraine’s election updates were shared through Ukraine World, Facebook groups, and Liga.net, one of Ukraine’s biggest online media companies. Video reports, explainers, and articles reached well over 100,000 unique online users and were shared by 25 media outlets around the country. • Internews Ukraine’s tracking of Russian anti-Ukrainian rhetoric on social media found disinformation messages on Vkontakte and Facebook suggesting that the elections would be rigged and that Ukraine is not a proper country. IUA found that Russian disinformation is moving from Vkontakte as it loses Ukrainian users to Facebook, which saw a spike in Ukrainian members after access to Russian platforms was restricted. • IAB’s social media influencers campaign encouraged young people to get out and vote, with five Instagram influencers reaching 1.5 million people in two weeks. Singer and TV presenter Volodymyr Dantes got the highest number of individual views (over 120,000) with a video from his car as he was driving to Kharkiv, where he is registered as a voter. • Detector Media’s relaunch of its Media and Elections web resource, providing analysis of how the media covered the election, was well-received, with content reaching over 500,000 unique users between January and March 2019. • Hromadske Radio’s Freedom of Choice radio show with interviews with presidential candidates reached about 450,000 radio listeners and 194,000 people online. • Odesa-based Institute of Political Information (IPI) created an online quiz called iVote to help voters find the candidates who most closely aligned with their own views. Over 105,000 people took the quiz. It generated a public debate that encouraged some of the candidates to be more explicit about where they stood on the issues of EU and NATO membership than they had been in their official manifestos submitted to the Central Election Commission.

Page 13 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 • IPI also worked with local media to produce articles and videos about the process of reforms and their effects on people living in the south: this content reached over 30,000 people online. • Kharkiv Press Club organized nine Political Cafes that drew in 180 journalists for informative discussions and training about the elections. Content produced as a result reached over 40,000 newspaper and online readers. • MPU trained around 730 journalists and editors during this reporting period. Journalism training events carried out by MPU partners around the country (CEDEM, RPDI, KPC, TPC, IUA, SF, IPC, and IPI) focused on how to cover elections, multimedia storytelling, legal issues for covering elections and carrying out investigative reporting, use of open data, information on the reforms, etc.

Objective 2: Increase public demand for quality information • MPU partners’ media literacy efforts resulted in expanding the integration of media literacy into mandatory disciplines at secondary schools and increasing the quality of curricula and textbooks on media literacy. The Academy of Ukrainian Press introduced six new media literacy modules to 400 teachers at 129 schools throughout Ukraine; the modules were downloaded 13,403 times from the AUP media literacy portal. For the first time, a workbook for the school textbook “I Explore the World” was approved and financed by the Ministry of Education and Science as a mandatory supplement and will be used at schools in the 2019-2020 academic year. AUP trained 40 teachers in the East (Lysychansk, Luhansk region) in the fundamentals of media literacy. • The Independent Association of Broadcasters in partnership with the FakesRadar team introduced an innovative approach to fighting disinformation online and increasing the level of media literacy of Ukrainian citizens. FakesRadar, a plug-in for Google Chrome and Facebook, highlights media content that has been identified as disinformation by several EU and Ukrainian fact-checking groups (EU Disinformation portal, StopFake, and VoxCheck). As of March 31, after the first round of presidential elections, 600 users had installed the plug-in. Ukrainian media company Novoe Vremya and Moldovan media outlet Newsmaker both updated false or misleading stories after the FakesRadar software identified disinformation material on their news feeds. • Hromadske Radio and Detector Media produced a wide range of radio, You Tube, and social media content raising Ukrainians’ critical thinking, reaching an overall audience of 506,400 people. • Ukrainian media watchdogs Institute of Mass Information and Detector Media launched Media Check, an electronic mechanism for complaints about media content. Media consumers can submit complaints online about violations of professional standards, propaganda, fakes, disinformation, etc. Seventeen complaints were received within the first month: the complaints will be assessed, media will be offered the chance to rectify the issue, and in the case of a dispute the complaints will be passed on for consideration by the Journalism Ethics Commission and Independent Media Council. • Institute of Mass Information’s national contest Catch a Fake! collected 111 reports from all regions of Ukraine (65 media stories, 17 photos and videos, and 29 statements of politicians). The contest educated media consumers on how to recognize fakes/disinformation.

Page 14 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 • Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) conducted two trainings on media literacy in the East (Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions) which stimulated demand for better journalism and improved critical thinking skills among 48 local journalists, judges, government and civil leaders, youth, librarians, and interested professionals. • POID’s regional media monitors examined 1,398 print media products and 596 online products of local print media outlets which completed the destatization reform in eight regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, , Lviv, and Odesa). Reports on local media quality reached 1,220 unique users. • Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, and Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy presented the findings of their media monitoring regarding content quality and journalism standards during the presidential election campaign. Black PR (when candidates pay for negative coverage of their opponents) was identified as the key feature of the 2019 presidential election campaign, but hidden advertising was also up three times compared to the 2014 elections.

Objective 3: Implement critical media reforms • Independent Association of Broadcasters launched a new advocacy campaign promoting the establishment of community broadcasting (destatization of municipal television and radio stations), in line with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law proposed a new funding model for the public broadcaster, and and Detector Media published 73 articles about UA:PBC which were read by 108,000 unique users online. • Ternopil Press Club conducted three trainings on professional standards, media literacy, tools for countering disinformation, methods of verification of information, and digital security for 59 editors of local destatized newspapers, contributing to the sustainability of newly privatized local media outlets. • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Regional Press Development Institute, Institute of Mass Information, and the Kharkiv and Ternopil Press Clubs raised journalists’ legal awareness through consultations and training, decreased the risks of lawsuits against media through pre-publication expertise, and assisted journalists at court. These MPU partners provided over 160 consultations and completed five pre- publication screenings, and media lawyers represented journalists in six court cases.

Objective 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions and processes • Internews launched the MPU in December 2018 with a “hard talk” event called #Informed_public – Responsible Journalism that brought over 80 journalists together from all around the country to discuss the challenges facing media in the forthcoming elections. Industry leaders called for a new self-regulatory movement to be created that would stimulate improved professional ethics for media covering elections. • USAID MPU partners launched on their own initiative a new movement, “Media for Conscious Choice,” in February 2019 that united 65 national and regional media outlets, journalists, and NGOs that signed on to a memorandum on ethical coverage of elections. The standards laid out in the memorandum included refusing to accept hidden promotional material for parties and candidates, black PR (negative stories about competitors), and bribery of journalists. In March/April a further 15 media outlets applied to join the movement.

Page 15 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 • Internews Ukraine worked with internet freedom activists and responsible government agencies to advocate for a digital rights agenda to be included in Ukraine’s legislation. This project is carried out in partnership with the ’ MATRA program. • Internews launched two research initiatives to help create a baseline study to promote Ukrainian media organizations’ future sustainability and fundraising abilities. The studies will look at the organizational capacity of leading media actors and the conditions for philanthropy and corporate social responsibility in the country, as well as other potential sources of future funding.

Page 16 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Key Activities and Results by Objective

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

Results: • Media partners of the MPU program produced high-quality engaging content about the elections, the reform process, and other important issues that reached at least 10,259,167 Ukrainians during this reporting period. • Ukraine’s public broadcaster UA:PBC launched a new political talk show in time for the presidential elections that competed successfully against the other national channels, providing a unique impartial and entertaining format for testing the presidential candidates’ platforms. The “Countdown” tripled UA:PBC’s audience for the time slot, reaching 8.5 million viewers in the two weeks running up to election day. • MPU supported high-quality journalism at Mirror Weekly with a series of articles and explainers about the elections, the reform process, the energy sector, consumer rights, etc. that reached 265,000 online and newspaper readers and were shared by around 70 other media outlets around the country. • Internews Ukraine responded to the introduction of martial law at the end of 2018 by arranging a training for 15 senior editors and managers of media outlets operating in the affected regions. The training covered crisis management and the legal ramifications of operating under martial law and military emergency. IUA produced guidelines for journalists in military zones and distributed them to 60 media outlets around Ukraine. • IAB’s social media influencers campaign encouraged young people to get out and vote, with five Instagram influencers reaching 1.5 million people in two weeks. Singer and TV presenter Volodymyr Dantes got the highest number of individual views (over 120,000) with a video from his car as he was driving to Kharkiv, where he is registered as a voter. • Internews Ukraine’s election updates were shared through Ukraine World, Facebook groups, and Liga.net, one of Ukraine’s biggest online media companies. Video reports, explainers, and articles reached well over 100,000 unique online users and were shared by 25 media outlets around the country. • Internews Ukraine’s tracking of Russian anti-Ukrainian rhetoric on social media found disinformation messages on Vkontakte and Facebook suggesting that the elections would be rigged and that Ukraine is not a proper country. IUA found that Russian disinformation is moving from Vkontakte as it loses Ukrainian users to Facebook, which saw a spike in Ukrainian members after access to Russian platforms was restricted. • Detector Media’s relaunch of its Media and Elections web resource, providing analysis of how the media covered the election, was well-received, with content reaching over 500,000 unique users between January and March 2019. • Hromadske Radio’s Freedom of Choice radio show with interviews with presidential candidates reached about 450,000 radio listeners and 194,000 people online. • Odesa-based Institute of Political Information (IPI) created an online quiz called iVote to help voters find the candidates who most closely aligned with their own views. Over 105,000 people took the quiz. It generated a public debate that encouraged some of the candidates to be more explicit about where they stood on the issues of EU and

Page 17 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 NATO membership than they had been in their official manifestos submitted to the Central Election Commission. • IPI also worked with local media to produce articles and videos about the process of reforms and their effects on people living in the south: this content reached over 30,000 people online. • Kharkiv Press Club organized nine Political Cafes that drew in 180 journalists for informative discussions and training about the elections. Content produced as a result reached over 40,000 newspaper and online readers. • MPU trained around 730 journalists and editors during this reporting period. Journalism training events carried out by MPU partners around the country (CEDEM, RPDI, KPC, TPC, IUA, SF, IPC, and IPI) focused on how to cover elections, multimedia storytelling, legal issues for covering elections and carrying out investigative reporting, use of open data, information on the reforms, etc.

1.1. Support for UA:PBC and Local Affiliates

The Media Program in Ukraine (MPU) provided an eight-month grant to UA:PBC (National Public Service Broadcasting Company) to increase quality content on its national and regional channels, including election-related programming and content to raise public awareness of reforms. MPU also supported efforts to build a strong and independent public broadcaster (UA:PBC) by strengthening its regional affiliates, increasing the capacity of its Supervisory Board, and implementing Ernst & Young auditors’ recommendations on the necessary improvements of UA:PBC’s governance systems.

The “Countdown” political talk show which was broadcast during the presidential election campaign in March and April 2019 tripled UA:PBC’s audience and reached more than 8.5 million viewers, making it the key success in UA:PBC’s TV line-up during the reporting period. Please see details in Activity 1.3 below.

MPU also supported the UA:PBC’s radio platform (UR), consolidating its recent success in audience growth (up by 67 percent between September 2017-June 2018) by supporting the production of live broadcasts focusing on how audiences in Ukraine’s regions are experiencing the reform processes. During the reporting period, the Ukrainian Radio team visited the 7th Local Governance Forum in Lviv (UR banners were among the information partners’ logos). After interviewing the Forum’s speakers – Tetiana Prykhodko, head of the Analysis and Research Department of the “City Institute;” Oleksandr Slobozhan, executive director of the Association of Cities of Ukraine; and Ihor Hrynkiv, mayor of the town of Zolochiv – UR broadcast a radio segment on March 18 about decentralization and regional development during its regular program "Today. Morning" that reached about 70,000 listeners. The report described local residents’ expectations from the decentralization reform, highlighted the results of local opinion polls, and outlined the legislative background to the creation of the amalgamated communities.

1.2. Increasing and Improving Content Production on Reforms

Reforms Coverage in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia [Mirror Weekly] During January-March 2019, Mirror Weekly (MW) newspaper published 54 analytical articles and 82 news reports in Ukrainian and Russian. These materials covered constitutional reform, judicial reform, and election law improvements; economic competition and oligarch monopoly

Page 18 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 prevention; banking sector reform; decentralization; transparency in public spending; combatting corruption and money laundering; education and science; healthcare; the energy sector; transparent privatization of state property; land market; reforming the armed forces and defense industry; and the issue of the reintegration of Donbas and social problems faced by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

“The Insidious Schizophrenia of War” by Dmitry Mendeleyev had over 10,226 online views and 419 shares, with 50 media republishing the article. The piece, published in the February 9- 15 edition, offered an analysis of the introduction of martial law in November 2018 and continuing threats from Russia. The author analyzed Russian army expenditures and open source data on the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the USA. He argued that, based on an overview of state budgeting for national security and defense over the past 20 years, Russia had begun preparing for hostilities against Ukraine long before the Crimean annexation and the armed conflict in Ukraine’s East.

Another popular piece with 133,559 views and 2,300 shares was a news report entitled “Electricity Price to Increase to UAH 3.5 per Kilowatt-hour.” Published in the March 16-22 edition, it described current trends in Ukraine’s energy market. The huge interest in this story reflects Ukrainians’ deep concern about tariff spikes.

Over the reporting period, the Weekly’s newspaper edition reached nearly 100,000 readers, while its online readership was 165,690. Articles were shared 11,394 times. In addition, more than 70 national and regional media outlets quoted the articles published as part of the MPU- supported project, with almost 100 officials from ministries and parliamentary committees, journalists, non-government analytical centers, and experts in relevant fields receiving MW’s articles through a dedicated newsletter.

1.3. Improving Elections Coverage

UA:PBC Political Talk Show Increases Public Discussion during Elections Between March 18-30, UA:PBC broadcast the new Countdown political talk show. The show featured the presidential candidates answering questions about their stance on key areas related to Ukraine’s Constitution: national security, the defense sector, and state policy. Unlike political talk shows broadcast on other national television channels, “Countdown” was praised by media critics for its impartial but entertaining format. Candidates had to answer tough questions from moderators, experts, and citizens, and were given strict time limits for their replies. “Countdown” quickly became popular with audiences, and UA:PBC’s viewership tripled for the time slot. Seven episodes on UA:Pershy aired over two weeks attracted nearly 8.5 million viewers (6,329,500 during live broadcasts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in evening primetime and 2,012,048 viewers of repeats). “Countdown” was also broadcast live by 24 UA:PBC regional branches, UA:Culture, UA:Crimea (with Crimean-Tatar voice-over), the UA:PBC You Tube channel (with English subtitles) and Facebook, and Ukrainian Radio (part of UA:PBC). The show was a step forward in the development of political culture in Ukraine, raised Ukrainians’ awareness of what the presidential candidates stood for, and increased audience trust in the public broadcaster as a reliable source of information. This is indicated by the fact that over 325,000 people voted on Facebook for a presidential debate at UA:PBC, creating the hashtags #debates_challenge and #wannaseedebates.

Page 19 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019

Promotion of the Countdown show in regional newspapers, photo from UA:PBC’s website

The Suspilnist Foundation (SF) assisted UA:PBC in production of the “Countdown” political talk show by collecting questions for the presidential candidates from the regional audience online, selecting young people for the studio audience, and creating an online platform “Responsible Leadership” featuring journalism students’ interviews with the presidential candidates and experts participating in the televised “Countdown” show. Three online interviews were broadcast on the platform and on the #Responsible Leadership page on Facebook. Students asked questions about the hybrid war, national security policy, and protection of Ukrainians’ constitutional rights; among the candidates interviewed were Roman Bezsmertny, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, Hennadiy Balashov, Ruslan Koshulynsky, and . The online material produced as part of the activity received a total of 133,882 views.

IAB’s social media influencers campaign #31_ya_budu reaches 1.5m young people IAB created an innovative social media campaign with the help of five Ukrainian celebrities to encourage young people to get out and vote. The Instagram influencers reached 1.5 million people in two weeks. Singer and TV presenter Volodymyr Dantes got the highest number of individual views (over 120,000) with a video from his car as he was driving to Kharkiv, where he is registered as a voter. In the video, he described how this would be the first time he would be voting in an election, and called on young people to get off the sofa and exercise their right to vote.

Internews Ukraine Updates Voters, Explains the President’s Constitutional Powers, and Promotes UA:PBC Political Talk Show before Presidential Election During the last week before the first round of the presidential election campaign and on the election day (March 25-31), Internews Ukraine (IUA) provided daily updates to Ukrainian and international audiences through its UkraineWorld (UW) initiative. Subscribers received e- mail newsletters highlighting UW’s key stories and videos related to the elections. UW’s website featured the “Ukraine’s Election 2019: Live Updates” section, which provided brief updates on the election campaign, and UW’s Facebook and Twitter pages covered election- related issues from March 30 to April 1. The UW updates collected over 7,000 views.

Page 20 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Among the UW updates were the following: • March 31, 23:03 — Results of the national exit poll (data at 8pm): Zelensky 30.6%; Poroshenko 17.8%; Tymoshenko 14.2%; Boyko 9.7%; Hrytsenko 7.1%.

• March 31, 22:34 — Zelensky says he can’t name his political team yet but promises to provide their names “by the end of the 2nd round.” When asked what he would tell Putin during their first meeting, he said: “Finally you returned our territories; how much money are you ready to compensate us for the fact that you took our lands,” suggesting that this meeting would take place only after Russia returns annexed and occupied territories to Ukraine.

• March 29 — On March 22 UW reported that Yuriy Boyko, founder of the Opposition Platform for Life, does not exclude the possibility of joining forces with Yulia Tymoshenko, but Tymoshenko herself spoke against this idea today. “He [Boyko] said this before going to Moscow. I think this was a planned provocation. We do not support such unions, there will never be such unions, we are for European Ukraine,” Tymoshenko argued.

• March 28 — 2,000 observers from the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) will work during the presidential elections, Oleksandr Koshel, CVU director general, said. There will be 10 mobile groups working during the elections to respond to possible violations of electoral legislation.

• March 27 — Ukraine’s National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council reports on electoral legislation violations by four major TV channels — Ukraina, Inter, ICTV and 1+1. The Council notes these channels shared inaccurate polling data and broadcast paid-for reports as if they were real news.

IUA produced and distributed a video explainer through Facebook about the president’s powers outlined under the Constitution of Ukraine. This video collected 14,077 views and 132 shares on Facebook.

In partnership with the popular information resource Liga.net, IUA produced a series of long reads about presidential powers, the importance of public debate on policy issues, and the UA:PBC independent political talk show “Countdown.” This series of long reads was re- published by 25 top regional media outlets. The overall audience reached was approximately 94,257 people. IUA’s promotional video of the UA:PBC “Countdown” political talk show garnered 13,742 views on Facebook.

Analysis of VKontakte Social Media Narratives before Presidential Election On March 27, IUA presented “Chaos and Hate: What Russian Social Network Vkontakte Says About Ukrainian Election” – an analysis of Ukraine-related content on the VKontakte (VK) social media site, at a press conference at Ukrinform in Kyiv. IUA experts Andriy Kulakov and Volodymyr Yermolenko reported on the kind of messages they found on VKontakte related to the presidential election in Ukraine, how VK users characterize the presidential candidates, and what kind of behavioral models they observed on VKontakte.

According to IUA, VKontakte currently has a significantly weakened position in Ukraine. Previously, it was the main resource for the promotion of pro-Kremlin messages, but after the Page 21 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Ukrainian government banned it in 2017, its users decreased significantly. While the researchers found that 330,000 out of 1 million sample users wrote about politics on VKontakte, the scale of political debate is much larger on Facebook. According to IUA, pro- Russian rhetoric is gradually moving from VKontakte to Facebook.

Donbas region has the leading number of active VK profiles (almost 30% of Ukrainian VK users are in Donbas). The most active profiles on VK writing about the elections were found in Donetsk region (29.7%), then Dnipropetrovsk (10.7%), Luhansk (9.9%), and Kyiv (7.9%). IUA also reported that they found a lot of negative posts about presidential candidates Tymoshenko – 56% of the comments about her were negative. Anatoly Grytsenko received a 41% share of negative comments, while 47% of comments about Oleg Lyashko were negative. received the highest percentage of positive posts on VKontakte, at 26%.

The most popular narratives on VK about Ukraine were that: • Ukrainian elections will be rigged; • There is no presidential candidate who could change anything; and • Ukraine will soon cease to exist.

Detector Media’s Media and Elections Website In January 2019, Detector Media (DM) re-launched its website Media and Elections (http://vybory.detector.media/) to analyze and distribute news and information about the media during the 2019 election campaigns. The website contains a wide array of sections, including Events, Journalists’ Rights, Manipulations, Trends, Social Networks, and Resources.

During the pre-election campaign DM renewed and upgraded the Media and Elections page and reported about issues that arose during elections (including those pertaining to media), monitored the safety of journalists, and helped protect them. DM published 476 media stories during the reporting period: 280 news items, 162 explainers, 17 interviews, 17 monitoring reports, and related materials. The website’s journalists interviewed seven presidential candidates, the head of the Central Electoral Commission, representatives of the Ukrainian election observer group OPORA (Civil Network “Support”), etc. The content was viewed 518,000 times during the reporting period. Web statistics show that the most popular content was related to news about candidate Volodymyr Zelensky.

The website has a section for complaints about regional media violations of ethical standards during elections, which was run in coordination with IMI. In all, 17 complaints were received and reviewed during the election period. The results of DM’s Election Detector monitoring showed that with the exception of UA:PBC all of the national TV broadcasters were biased in their election reporting and tended to show a preference for particular candidates, especially 112, Pryamyi and NewsOne. DM’s findings were discussed at a meeting of the Committee of the on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy.

Page 22 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 “Freedom of Choice” by Hromadske Radio

Hromadske Radio moderator of Freedom of Choice, Andriy Kulykov, photo from HR’s website

On January 12-March 29, Hromadske Radio (HR) broadcast 20 “Freedom of Choice” talk shows. These were 50-minute interviews with presidential candidates and independent political experts. HR formatted the program so that the anchor (HR director and well-known Ukrainian journalist Andriy Kulykov) received direct feedback from the audience – questions and comments through phone calls to the studio, social network comments, and via SMS (mobile text messages). HR media expert and journalist Tetyana Troshchynska was at the studio in tandem with Kulykov and commented on the candidates’ answers to the audience’s questions. All programs produced broad public discussion through comments added to video streams of the radio shows on Facebook and YouTube.

The show was a platform for 20 candidates to introduce their platforms and explain their intentions should they win. Each candidate tried to find a particular position to stand out from the rest. For example, , the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, described his plan to build the first conservative democratic party in Ukraine, regardless of the results of the presidential election. Hennadiy Balashov, a businessman and leader of the “5.10” political party, said that he was only running for presidet as a way to publicize “5.10” in advance of the parliamentary elections in October 2019. When asked his opinion about the women’s march for equal rights on March 8, Olexandr Danyliuk, an advisor to the Minister of Defense in 2014, commented that this was a manipulation and a substitution for the much wider issue of the fight for the equality of transgender people.

The “Freedom of Choice” radio shows encouraged the audience to make informed decisions on election day and critically examine the candidates’ platforms. Audiences were interested in hearing candidates’ plans for medical reform, fighting corruption, political direction, economic prospects, foreign policy, how to reintegrate the occupied areas (Donbas and Crimea), peace building, etc.

HR broadcast “Freedom of Choice” through its own 16 transmitters in six regions of Ukraine (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia), via the transmission network of its partner Radio NV (at least 40 cities in all regions of Ukraine), and through Crimea Realities

Page 23 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 (which covers major parts of Eastern and Southern Ukraine, including Crimea). The overall monthly audience was approximately 450,000 listeners. In addition, the online audience of this show for January 12-March 29 was approximately 193,900 people.

Training Journalists on Legal Issues to Improve Elections Coverage The Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) worked with journalists to increase the quantity of high-quality, engaging content, particularly in the east and south of Ukraine, and improve elections coverage. On February 27 in Kyiv CEDEM held a training on “How to Cover Elections” for 18 national and regional journalists. The training agenda included advice on legal aspects of media activity during elections, the basics of political advertisement, and cases of typical violations which may occur during elections. The trainers were Igor Rozkladay (CEDEM), Pavlo Moiseev (IUA), and Liudmyla Opryshko (Human Rights Platform).

The Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) worked on improving regional coverage of elections and conducted two trainings in Kyiv (February 22 and March 15) for 33 regional journalists in total (20 women, 13 men) on the legal aspects of covering elections (“Effective Work of Journalists during the Election Process”). The events covered how journalists should interact with local election commissions once entering the voting station, how to differentiate between public information and personal data, as well as how to use open data for content production during elections. iVote Tool Encourages Voters to Analyze Candidates’ Platforms In early March, the Odesa-based NGO “Institute of Political Information” (IPI) launched the iVote (ivote.com.ua) independent informative online platform designed to help voters familiarize themselves with the programs of Ukraine’s presidential candidates and political parties. The platform contained a quiz and articles to help voters learn about the official approaches of parties and candidates to solving important social and political issues. It received praise from some famous media commentators, including popular late-night TV host Michael Shchur.

The iVote quiz correlated user responses about issues that are important to them with the official positions of the candidates declared in their election programs as registered at the Central Election Commission. A team of programmers and experts developed an algorithm for calculating the closeness of user preferences to party and candidate platforms. iVote provides quotes from the official candidate programs and comparisons of the different manifestos.

The platform works for all browsers and is available on Facebook. A mobile version is available for Android Chrome and iOS Safari, as well as a Telegram bot @i_vote_bot. iVote’s developers guarantee user anonymity – the quiz does not collect any personal data and you don’t need to register to play.

The purpose of iVote was to increase understanding of the electoral process and the official programs of the candidates. IPI urged citizens to rely on their own judgement, analyze the results of the quiz themselves, and make an informed decision when voting.

Over the month following its launch, the platform gained more than 105,000 unique users. After the quiz, users were directed to the candidates’ election manifestos - almost 500,000 pages of candidate programs were read, meaning each person who completed the quiz spent around four minutes looked at approximately five candidate programs. The iVote quiz

Page 24 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 provoked a wave of discussions about the programs of candidates for the presidency of Ukraine. Ten presidential candidates responded to comments and shares of iVote content. Some campaign representatives established direct contact with the iVote project: Viktor Krivenko, the head of the People's Movement, chief of staff of Anatoliy Hrytsenko’s headquarters in Odesa, threatened the iVote project with a lawsuit because the quiz showed that Hrytsenko had not taken an official position in his manifesto on Ukraine-NATO relations. Nearly 4,000 Telegram users signed up for the iVote chatbot and received regular iVote updates.

Political Cafés in Kharkiv for Eastern and Southern Regions During the Presidential Election campaign, the Kharkiv Press Club (KPC) organized nine Political Cafés at Media Hub Kharkiv for around 180 (100 women, 80 men) politicians, experts, journalists, and bloggers from Kharkiv, Odesa, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. Moderated by KPC representatives, they discussed the presidential candidates’ political platforms and the political and economic situations in each of the regions. The Political Cafés were broadcast online (Facebook and YouTube), and seven of the events were shown on local TV channels (ATN, Orion, and Obyektyv (Zoom)). Journalists shared information from the Political Cafés in video segments and texts via the Facebook groups Pokrovsk-Donetsk- Ukraine (4,507 members), and Troyitske City (977 members). They also produced and distributed 64 online and print articles (online audience: 19,434 users; print newspaper circulation: 20,000 copies).

Ternopil Press Club Serves as Regional Information Hub during Elections During the presidential elections, the Ternopil Press Club (TPC) served as a regional hub for distribution of information about the activities of politicians, journalists, public activists, state officials, and other parties related to the election process. TPC conducted one training for 25 local bloggers and journalists (20 women, 5 men), nine press conferences, one roundtable, and one public awareness campaign “Do not Panic! Vote!” to cover election-related issues and challenges in the region. These TPC events reached an audience of around 1,000 people.

On March 31, the day of the presidential election, TPC organized an “Election Day” press center on its premises. TPC ran five briefings updating journalists and interested citizens on the voting process in Ternopil region, one every few hours (starting from early morning and ending after the closure of voting stations at 8:00 p.m.). Among the speakers were representatives of the local election commissions, law enforcement agencies, local departments of the state register of voters, international observers, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, election observer group OPORA, the coalition of public organizations “For Honest and Transparent Elections,” and others.

TPC’s activities resulted in 208 media reports covering election topics. The content was posted on the Ternopil Press Club’s website, distributed through Facebook, and through local partners’ websites: TEREN (http://teren.in.ua/), ROVESNYK (https://rovesnyknews.te.ua/), and Internet TV TMC (http://tmcinfo.com.ua/).

1.4. Supporting Investigative Journalism

10th National Conference for Investigative Journalists December 7-9, 2018 – The Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) held its 10th national conference for investigative journalists in Kyiv in December 2018. The event brought

Page 25 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 together 277 participants, including 100 from Ukraine’s regions, and 60 speakers from 17 countries. The three-day agenda focused on the media’s role during elections and the opportunities and risks for investigative journalists in Ukraine and beyond. The participants learned about the mechanisms of financing political parties and presidential candidates in Ukraine and worldwide, and challenges investigative reporters face during elections.

The event provided a unique platform for discussion, knowledge-sharing, and networking. The keynote speaker at the conference was David Kay Johnston (DCReport.org), a well-known investigator of political corruption in the . Johnston spoke about techniques of journalistic investigations during elections and in the era of fakes and “post-truth.”

International speakers at RPDI’s 10th national conference, photo from Detector Media’s website

Among the conference participants were well-known Ukrainian investigative reporters which have been supported by USAID for years as part of anti-corruption and media development activities: Slidstvo.info, a media project that combined Kyiv, Mykolayiv, Rivne, and Crimea investigative reporting centers supported by Internews from 2014 to 2018 (the four centers collaborated to produce a nationwide program broadcast by two national and 17 regional television channels to an estimated audience of over 14 million viewers); and Nashi Hroshi, which has produced and broadcast more than 40 investigative TV programs of cases of corruption, mismanagement, and abuse of power on national TV channels. Over US $1.3 million of Ukrainian taxpayers’ money was returned to the state budget as a result of Nashi Hroshi’s investigations.

RPDI believes that this national conference contributed to building investigative journalists’ solidarity in the challenging period of elections.

School of Regional Investigative Reporters On February 27-March 3, RPDI organized the first training on the first module of a new three- stage program within the RPDI School of Regional Investigative Reporters. Nineteen investigative journalists (15 women, four men) from the regions improved their skills in

Page 26 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 investigative techniques and working with big data. The trainers were: Denys Bihus and Dmytro Mokryk (both from Bihus.info), Daryna Shevchenko (Slidstvo.info), Liudmyla Pankratova (RPDI), Vitaliy Moroz (IUA), and Alla Strizhak (Nashi Hroshi).

Web Portal Bureau for Court Information The Information Press Center (IPC) launched a web portal for its special project Bureau for Court Information. The objectives of this multimedia platform are to cover cases related to Crimea that are being considered in Ukrainian courts, to track “Ukraine vs Russia” hearings in international courts, to inform about reform in Ukraine’s court system, and to document human rights violations in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. Forty media reports – news, court reports, and interviews – were produced and publicized on the Bureau’s website throughout February-March.

1.5. Strengthening Professional Development and Cross-Regional Linkages

Media Learn How to Operate in Emergency Situations In response to the introduction of martial law for 30 days in ten regions of Ukraine from November 26 through December 26, Internews Ukraine (IUA) organized a seminar in Kyiv on February 27-28 called “How Should Media Operate in Conditions of War?” The event provided guidance for 15 media editors (9 women, 6 men) from the regions of Ukraine where martial law was applied (Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Donetsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia). Participants received advice from lawyers on the types of legal restraints that might be put in place if the conflict were to be escalated. The agenda also included a session on crisis mitigation planning (including emergency contacts, emergency stories to distribute in case of emergency, places for journalists to visit in case of emergencies, etc.). Media editors from Ukrainian regions which had experienced conflict and invasion shared their stories of working in emergency conditions. In the end, media did not experience any untoward restrictions during the 30-day period of martial law.

IUA developed a brochure, “Guidelines for Journalists in Military Conflict Zones,” which was distributed to 60 media outlets, beyond the seminar participants. IUA also initiated consultations with the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine and other relevant state agencies (such as the State Security Service and Ministry of Interior) to further develop joint recommendations on how media should operate in conditions of war or when a military conflict escalates.

Format Lab for Regional Broadcasters The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) launched a project to establish a Content Fund (a content sharing platform) and operate a Format Lab (an online resource for regional broadcasters to select fresh television and radio program formats for production of socially important content). In early February 2019, IAB assembled an editorial team of experts experienced in producing innovative, engaging, and entertaining television and radio programs, and developed 10 formats (new program designs e.g. game shows, reality shows, documentary shows) to provide ideas to regional media on how to structure high-quality content around topics of interest to regional audiences. Regional media often lack funding and technical capacity to create new program designs, so these new formats fill a major hole for them in terms of updating their program line-up. The quality of the format concepts was verified with focus groups. Five of the formats (Snoops; Social Experiment; What do these politicians know?; Open Lesson; and Broken Promises) were selected for further development

Page 27 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 to be offered to local broadcasters in spring 2019. Starting in late March, the IAB team and a group of experts have been working on development of “bibles” (detailed instruction manuals) for regional media to learn how to roll out these new formats.

Media Mobility Hub Internship for Young Journalists From February 28 to March 14, 2019, the Suspilnist Foundation (SF) organized a winter- spring session of journalistic internships – the Media Mobility Hub – in Kyiv for 22 students (18 women, four men) from Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kropyvnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv. This group of young journalists gained work experience over two weeks at well-known national media outlets, such as Radio Liberty, Espreso TV, ICTV, ZIK, the Village, and Radio Aristocrats. The key aim of the internship program was to give students hands-on experience in developing media products in different genres, including reports, interviews, photo, audio, and video segments. Participants also attended master classes run by Inna Kuznetsova (editor-in-chief of Radio Liberty in Kyiv) and Dmytro Tuzov (Radio Novoe Vremya journalist) and made site visits to Channel 5, Radio NV, Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske.ua, 1+1, ICTV, and the editorial office of the “Chesno” movement newspaper.

Following the internships, several students were offered continued work and learning opportunities: Andriy Nenadov continued working with the editorial office of Radio Liberty in Kyiv; Anastasia Zubchenko continued her internship in Оlexander Pedan's project on a healthy lifestyle, JuniorZ; and interns Artem Novikov and Oleksandr Taran were invited for additional summer training at the Espreso TV channel.

Among the Media Mobility Hub interns’ media reports are: • Maidan turned on Shevchenko’s Feeling: Oksana Zabuzhko and Taras Bystrytsky about Kobzar • Bihus, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels • How in Ukraine people save nature, not thanks to, but despite the system • Myroslav Skoryk: “It's a big dream - to leave all work positions and just to create and live for the soul” • Social Lyrics: “Human weaknesses of the generation of references” • From Primavera to Sziget: 14 musical festivals in Europe that are worth it

Inter-Regional Collaboration for Content Production In January, Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) commenced a nine-month project called “Donbas Media Forum and Inter-Regional Collaboration for Quality Content Production for the East of Ukraine” aimed at improving regional journalism. During the reporting period, DII created a network of regional editorial offices of Donetsk (0629, Donbas Public Television, Svoi Site), Luhansk (Realna Gazeta), Kharkiv (Nakipielo), Lviv (Dyvys, The Ukrainians), Kherson (Vhoru), and Kyiv (Zaborona, Hromadske). The main goal of the network is to reinforce professional development and promote inter-regional linkages among journalists and media organizations in the east and other regions of Ukraine to cooperate on content production and information exchange. The inter-regional linkages will increase the content’s audience reach, promote the inclusion of audiences in the context of events in the regions, help reduce tensions between regions, stimulate content creation, and increase Ukrainians’ demand for quality local information. In addition to increased quality content, the idea of this project is to reduce production expenses, since media will partner with each other to work on the same story or exchange content.

Page 28 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Journalists from Lviv and Kherson are currently working together on their first package of content which will be focused on the fifth year of conflict between Russia and Ukraine and its impact on people’s lives, environmental issues, and the closure of coal mines in the east and west of Ukraine. A network of Lviv and Kharkiv newsrooms has started working on six joint media products. The first text and video product was released on Dyvys online resource: Rescued: Where Happy Bears Live. This is a heart-warming joint project looking at the transformed lives of bears that have been rescued from captivity.

A happy bear, rescued from captivity, photo from Dyvys website

Inter-Regional Press Tours for Quality Content Production and Raising Journalists’ Awareness of Reforms Kharkiv Press Club (KPC) organized two two-day press tours for 21 journalists (19 women, two men) to Kharkiv and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts. During the press tours, journalists learned about the process of reforms in the regions, assessed local governments’ performance on decentralization and other reforms, learned about national security issues, public and business initiatives in the regions, assistance to veterans and internally displaced persons. Press tours also included visits to newsrooms of local media, roundtables with local journalists, and discussions about the professional environment and self-regulation in media sector. The journalists produced 38 reports and posted content in local media outlets and on the MediaPool Facebook group page. The press tours raised some local interest, and as a result four newspapers covered the press tours in articles, nine local websites posted news, and four local TV channels broadcast information about the press tours in their news programs. One of the best examples of content produced as a result of the exchange was by a Donetsk journalist: Promprylad. Renovation - how the revitalization of a respectable machine-building plant began. It tells the story of the transformation of an old factory in Ivano-Frankivsk into an innovation center designed to develop the potential of the city and region, stimulate entrepreneurship and the local economy, and create an operating model for other cities with similar conditions. A similar center has already been set up in Kyiv.

Schools of Practical Journalism in Kharkiv and Ternopil Two press clubs in the east and west of Ukraine – Kharkiv and Ternopil – launched schools for local journalists’ professional development. Kharkiv Press Club (KPC), using Media Hub Kharkiv as a venue, organized a “School for Practical Journalism and Media Literacy” in February 2019 where 20 (14 women, six men) journalists, editors and bloggers from Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions improved their skills, exchanged information, and received legal

Page 29 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 assistance. Training modules included journalism ethics, professional standards, information verification methods, and digital security issues. In total, 10 training events and 10 master classes with well-known journalists took place, covering professional standards, media literacy, tools for countering disinformation, methods of verification of information, and digital security. As an example, on February 25, a training session “Tools and Features of Video Content in News Production: Video that People Want to Watch” improved participants’ skills in video storytelling.

Ternopil Press Club (TPC) launched a “Multimedia School of Practical Journalism.” The press club team competitively selected 25 regional journalists (20 women, five men) who participated in eight practical lessons on mastering video and text storytelling. On March 7, a training session on “Standards and Ethics of Multimedia Journalism” was conducted by Diana Dutsyk, executive director of the Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communications.

1.6. Emphasizing Interventions in the East and South

Media Hubs in the South Break Through Information Vacuum

Media hub in Kherson, photo published on IPC’s website

In February, the Information Press Center (IPC, relocated from Simferopol to Kyiv in 2014) created two media hubs – IPC-Kherson and IPC-Genichesk – in Kherson and Genichesk. Kherson is the capital of Kherson region and a major administrative center in the south of the country. Genichesk is a major border town close to Crimea and a location for many internally- displaced people (IDPs) from Crimea, especially Crimean Tatars. Ukraine provides administrative services to Crimean residents in Genichesk. In February-March, the two media hubs hosted 40 media events (press conferences, briefings, teleconferences) providing local residents with news about their communities, reforms on the national and regional levels, presidential elections, integration process into the EU, Crimea’s de-occupation prospects, Crimea’s sanctions lists, and the history of Kherson region. The hubs acted as platforms for local journalists and media outlets in the south of Ukraine to receive unbiased information and professional development. The Kherson and Genichesk hubs produced exclusive multimedia content using various formats and platforms for distribution. Over 200 news, interviews, streaming of press conferences, sketches, and online broadcasts were distributed through the hubs’ websites and Facebook pages. The websites of the new hubs only recently started posting Page 30 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 material in February 2019 and the estimated audience reached in the south of Ukraine for this content is 1,720 people so far. Internews is advising IPC about how to promote their content more broadly through search engine optimization and social media promotion.

IPC also contributed to raising journalists’ professionalism in content production for the south of Ukraine by organizing two trainings at the IPC-Kherson and IPC-Genichesk hubs from February 21-22. Twenty-eight (17 women, 11 men) local journalists, bloggers, and journalism students learned journalism standards, studied interview techniques, and learned ways to work with open data and other sources to produce good quality news through the training program “News: How to Create High-Quality Content Quickly.” Valentyna Samar, head of IPC and a BBC-certified trainer on journalism news and investigative reporting, led the trainings.

“The National Security Issue” Television Program Provides a Picture of Occupied Crimea IPC provided information about Crimea for Ukrainian and international audiences and about current Ukrainian developments for Crimean residents through 11 hour-long news and analytical programs called “The National Security Issue” – a weekly TV show on Chornomorska TV (Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00pm), IPC’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, and IPC’s Center for Journalist Investigations (CJI) portal. The audience for the content so far has been 75,167 unique users across online platforms, not counting television audiences for which they do not have current data, but which previously showed figures of around 500,000.

Topics covered by IPC in “The National Security Issue” included: o Losses for Ukraine – about the decision of the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration to rule that Russia’s expropriation of the assets of Ukraine’s Naftogaz, its six subsidiaries, and the Black Sea shelf when Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, was illegal. According to Naftogaz estimates, Ukraine lost US $5 billion and continues to incur losses because Russia extracted nine billion cubic meters of gas from the Black Sea shelf during the last five years of Russia’s occupation of Crimea. o Draft bill #9275 “Introducing Amendments to Some Legislative Acts on Ensuring Information Security of Ukraine” – Tetiana Popova (studio guest, former advisor to the Minister of Information Policy) explained the risks of limiting freedom of speech online if the bill is passed. According to Popova, the bill would empower government agencies to have too much control over information resources. Popova also suggested that the bill was developed by Ukrainian special services, which, she said, control MPs working on the Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Defense. o Revisiting Russia’s Occupation of Crimea – the program looked back at the events of 2014, when Russian armed forces first occupied the Crimean peninsula. The program showed two rallies that took place simultaneously at Crimea’s Parliament in 2014: the first initiated by the Majlis of Crimean Tatar people to preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the second organized by supporters of the “Russian Unity” movement. o Evaluation of Presidential Candidates’ Platforms regarding their positions on Crimea. Studio guest Eskender Bariiev, head of the Crimean and Tatar Resource Center, presented monitoring of the top 10 candidates’ platforms for their plans to free Crimea, protect human rights in the occupied territories, and realize the collective rights of the Crimean Tatar people. Twenty-one candidates used statements such as “Crimea is Ukraine,” and “Crimea should be liberated,” and 13 candidates made no reference to Crimea at all.

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Improving Coverage of Reforms in the South Institute of Political Information (IPI, Odesa) produced and published 10 analytical articles and 30 video digests (2-3 minutes each) covering the process of reforms in the south of Ukraine. Among the topics were: local practices of decentralization, public and business initiatives facilitating reforms in the south, reform of the educational system and healthcare, and the impact of reforms on the living standards of citizens in the south of Ukraine. IPI distributed its products through its Democratic Informer website, Facebook, Telegram, and other popular social network platforms, reaching over 35,000 people. To improve journalists’ skills in developing engaging, high-quality content, IPI conducted three trainings (February 20, March 13 and 23) in the Odesa region for 47 journalists in total (28 women, 19 men) from local communities around the Odesa region on storytelling techniques, specifics of reforms, and working with open data. Afterwards, IPI experts mentored training alumni on continuing to develop content using the techniques they learned at the trainings.

Donbas Media Forum is on Its Way Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) established a steering committee to organize the Donbas Media Forum (DMF) in mid-July 2019 for approximately 350 media professionals from all regions of Ukraine, with an emphasis on covering elections and community development in the east. The committee comprised representatives of UA:PBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Hromadske Radio, Detector Media, Independent Association of Broadcasters, Internews Ukraine, Academy of Ukrainian Press, and the Ministry of Information Policy. The upcoming DMF will also focus on media management, quality content production and distribution, and sharing best practices of media work in the east.

DII reported that the objectives of the DMF in 2019 are: 1. To reduce the amount of manipulation in media; 2. To contribute to audiences’ resilience in dealing with disinformation spread by Russian sources, as well as Ukrainian politicians and unprofessional journalists; 3. To encourage informed decision-making during elections, especially in the east and south.

Objective 2: Increase public demand for quality information

Results: • MPU partners’ media literacy efforts resulted in expanding the integration of media literacy into mandatory disciplines at secondary schools and increasing the quality of curricula and textbooks on media literacy. The Academy of Ukrainian Press introduced six new media literacy modules to 400 teachers at 129 schools throughout Ukraine; the modules were downloaded 13,403 times from the AUP media literacy portal. For the first time, a workbook for the school textbook “I Explore the World” was approved and financed by the Ministry of Education and Science as a mandatory supplement and will be used at schools in the 2019-2020 academic year. AUP trained 40 teachers in the East (Lysychansk, Luhansk region) in the fundamentals of media literacy. • The Independent Association of Broadcasters in partnership with the FakesRadar team introduced an innovative approach to fighting disinformation online and Page 32 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 increasing the level of media literacy of Ukrainian citizens. FakesRadar, a plug-in for Google Chrome and Facebook, highlights media content that has been identified as disinformation by several EU and Ukrainian fact-checking groups (EU Disinformation portal, StopFake, and VoxCheck). As of March 31, after the first round of presidential elections, 600 users had installed the plug-in. Ukrainian media company Novoe Vremya and Moldovan media outlet Newsmaker both updated false or misleading stories after the FakesRadar software identified disinformation material on their news feeds. • Hromadske Radio and Detector Media produced a wide range of radio, You Tube, and social media content raising Ukrainians’ critical thinking, reaching an overall audience of 506,400 people. • Ukrainian media watchdogs Institute of Mass Information and Detector Media launched Media Check, an electronic mechanism for complaints about media content. Media consumers can submit complaints online about violations of professional standards, propaganda, fakes, disinformation, etc. Seventeen complaints were received within the first month: the complaints will be assessed, media will be offered the chance to rectify the issue, and in the case of a dispute the complaints will be passed on for consideration by the Journalism Ethics Commission and Independent Media Council. • Institute of Mass Information’s national contest Catch a Fake! collected 111 reports from all regions of Ukraine (65 media stories, 17 photos and videos, and 29 statements of politicians). The contest educated media consumers on how to recognize fakes/disinformation. • Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) conducted two trainings on media literacy in the East (Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions) which stimulated demand for better journalism and improved critical thinking skills among 48 local journalists, judges, government and civil leaders, youth, librarians, and interested professionals. • POID’s regional media monitors examined 1,398 print media products and 596 online products of local print media outlets which completed the destatization reform in eight regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Lviv, and Odesa). Reports on local media quality reached 1,220 unique users. • Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, and Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy presented the findings of their media monitoring regarding content quality and journalism standards during the presidential election campaign. Black PR (when candidates pay for negative coverage of their opponents) was identified as the key feature of the 2019 presidential election campaign, but hidden advertising was also up three times compared to the 2014 elections.

2.1. Streamlining Media Literacy Efforts

Expanding Use of Media Literacy in Schools The Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) worked on expanding secondary schools’ use of media literacy modules through teacher training and the introduction of new handbooks. AUP’s experts developed and launched a media literacy workbook in March 2019 for the course “I Explore the World” for second grade students. The workbook was published on AUP’s Media Education website as well as on the Ministry of Education and Science’s New Ukrainian School online portal, and distributed to 400 teachers at 129 secondary schools that selected media literacy as a pilot discipline. On March 28, the Ministry of Education and Science approved this workbook as a mandatory supplement to the textbook “I Explore the Page 33 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 World” for the second grade. For the first time, an AUP workbook will be published at the expense of Ukraine’s state budget. It will be launched in mid-2019 and used at schools for the 2019-2020 academic year.

While working on the integration of media literacy into mandatory school disciplines, AUP developed and introduced (via Ukraine’s New School portal and Facebook group) six media literacy modules to 400 teachers (of schools teaching media literacy as a pilot discipline), to be used in the course for the second grade. The modules were downloaded 13,403 times from the AUP media literacy portal. For the first time, AUP involved Ukrainian animators in the creation of media literacy modules for integration into mandatory disciplines. The Ukrainian State Film Agency officially offered the cartoon “My Country is Ukraine” by Novator Film studio for teachers to use for free during media literacy lessons for the second grade at secondary schools. The second graders will master their skills of responsible media consumption through analysis of ethnographic cartoons, interpretation, and critical assessment of visual and textual information.

On March 27, AUP held a “Fundamentals of Media Literacy” training in Lysychansk (Luhansk region) for 40 teachers (38 women, two men) at the Guardian lyceum. This school has been participating in the Ministry of Education and Science’s media literacy pilot for five years and is continually integrating media literacy into mandatory disciplines. One of the novice teachers in Lysychansk commented on the value added from AUP’s training, “I’ll add mindfulness to my attitude towards the consumption of media products. I hope to teach schoolchildren to distinguish between fabricated and real stories, and not fall into manipulative traps.”

FakesRadar Reveals Fakes and Disinformation In February-March 2019, in order to introduce effective new approaches to fighting disinformation online and increase the level of media literacy of Ukrainian citizens, the Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) worked with the FakesRadar team to accomplish the active launch of FakesRadar – an initiative focused on revealing fakes and disinformation in online media. FakesRadar is a plug-in for Google Chrome and Facebook which highlights media content that has been identified as disinformation by several EU and Ukrainian fact-checking groups (EU vs Disinformation, StopFake, and VoxCheck). The product was aimed at people who predominantly consume online news and was launched on March 15, 2019. Before launching the software, the team conducted a survey based on a focus group of 59 potential users to improve user compatibility, and conducted an independent security audit supported by Google Jigsaw which improved the protection of users’ personal data. On March 15, IAB launched a social media campaign to promote the FakesRadar tool as an efficient way of detecting disinformation on online resources during the election period. As of March 31, after the first round of presidential elections, 600 installations had been made. Downloads are systematically growing in number and are expected to achieve the targets over the next few weeks.

This project has also contributed to improving media coverage of elections. Ukrainian media company Novoe Vremya and Moldovan media outlet Newsmaker both updated false or misleading stories after FakesRadar software identified disinformation material on their news feeds. FakesRadar also received support from the Europe-based accelerator StartupWiseGuys as an innovative and efficient counter-disinformation tool. This funding will be used for upgrades and to spread information about the tool.

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Radio Talk Show Counters Manipulations Twelve “MozOK” (Brain) radio talk shows produced by Hromadske Radio (HR) in January- March proposed ways in which media consumers can recognize, deal with, and resist manipulative messages. The show’s anchor is HR editor Tetiana Troshchynska, a well-known journalist with over 20 years of professional experience.

MozOk show logo, image from Hromadske Radio’s website

“MozOK” focused on a variety of topics: • Social networks and their impact on society’s mental health. Psychotherapist Spartak Subbota and the host discussed digital addiction and how it can influence people’s perceptions of reality. • The impact of fact-checking on daily life. “Information selected with the purpose to deliver certain messages does not inform, it works to manipulate and influence people’s brains,” said Oleksandr Horokhovsky, editor-in-chief of the Bez Brehni (With No Lie) website, a fact-checking coach, and head of the public organization “Center for Analysis and Investigations.” • Ukraine of Performances. The program highlighted how politics in Ukraine, especially during the elections, have turned into a spectacle. “The point is that there must be no place for negotiation, discussion or dialogue in the show. One should just fill one’s own mouth with popcorn and simply watch without participation,” said Taras Liutiy, writer, professor of the Department of Philosophy and Religion of the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, about the current fights between politicians on national television channels’ talk shows. • Why is it not possible to reduce taxes and increase social standards simultaneously? Olexiy Herashchenko, a financial expert, lecturer at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, and author of the textbook “Economics XXI,” commented on the pre-election programs of presidential candidates.

Page 35 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 • Analysis of the current state of the election campaign by Maria Zolkina, an analyst with the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. Zolkina suggested voters should carefully evaluate presidential candidates’ platforms before making their choice.

HR broadcast “MozOK” on FM frequencies for a total monthly audience of approximately 350,000 listeners: women and men aged 16+, who live in Kyiv city and region, Dnipro, Shpola (Cherkasy region), Odesa, Donetsk and Luhansk regions (including part of the occupied territories). The HR audience in Donbas lives in and around the following towns and cities: Donetsk, Luhansk, Volnovakha, Artemivsk, Bilovodsk, Bilolutsk, Dokuchaivsk, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, Pokrovsk, Shyroke, Slovyansk, Starobilsk, Zorynivka, Kostiantynivka, and Bakhmut. The online audience of “MozOK” (HR website) for the reporting period was approximately 17,400 people.

Mechanism of Complaints about Media Content On March 12, Detector Media (DM) and Institute of Mass Information (IMI) launched a newly-created Google form for complaints about the media (called Media Check) on their websites. To file a complaint about media content, people must provide their name, e-mail address, and a link to the story they have a complaint about, and describe the problem they have with the story. Anonymous complaints are not accepted, but the complainant’s name will not be publicly revealed.

DM and IMI experts consider the complaints for legal violations, professional journalistic standards, and media ethics. Once the complaints are analyzed, IMI and DM send requests to the media outlets concerned to correct mistakes and publish the experts’ conclusions, and if the media do not act on these requests, DM and IMI forward the complaints to the Commission of Journalism Ethics and the Independent Media Council for further consideration.

“The mechanism of public complaints of violations of professional standards should become the basis for professional dialogue and increase public trust in media. Constructive criticism is very important for the development and improvement of the quality of publications,” Natalia Ligachova, the head of Detector Media, commented on the DM and IMI websites. “If a media outlet aims to improve its content, it should be ready to recognize its mistakes and appreciate the opinion of its regular readers. Sometimes violations of journalistic standards are not intentional: quite often, it is a matter of being in a hurry, making a mistake, or negligence,” Ligachova added.

“The human factor is always an issue, and a journalist's mistake might not be noticed by the editor,” said IMI director Oksana Romaniuk. “If an attentive reader points it out and the outlet addresses the issue, this will improve the dialogue between the media and their audience, and increase trust, because the audience will understand that the newsroom is responsive to its consumers,” Romaniuk added.

The methodology used to evaluate complaints is accessible to the general public.

During the reporting period, media consumers reported 17 violations of professional standards using the IMI-DM complaint mechanism (Media Check). The majority of complaints touched the issue of balance in TV content, protection of children’s rights, and hidden advertising. As of the end of March, IMI and DM experts have prepared conclusions on four complaints. One complaint, due to the complexity of the issue, was submitted for consideration to the

Page 36 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Independent Media Council (IMC) and the Commission of Journalism Ethics (CJE). This complaint referred to a Nashi Hroshi online report on the energy market. The complainant felt that the report’s comparison of electricity prices in Hungary and Ukraine was manipulative. Given the complexity of the issue, DM/IMI evaluators passed it on to the ethics adjudicators at IMC and CJE for additional expertise.

Catch a Fake! National Contest To stimulate media consumers to report about fakes and educate a wider audience on how to recognize fakes/disinformation, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) organized a national contest from March 1-31 called Catch a Fake! Throughout the month of March, media consumers submitted cases of fakes they found in local media through IMI’s special Google form. Media consumers were asked to identify fakes in media products that were published between September 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. Approximately nine winners in three categories will be selected by an independent commission and receive cash prizes from IMI in the spring of 2019. Criteria for winning include the quality of argumentation (how the entrant concluded it was fake), importance of the topic (is it recent, related to a major event), and originality (use of different sources or methods of verification). During the reporting period, IMI received 111 reports about fakes from all regions of Ukraine. The entries were for 65 media reports, 17 photos and videos, and 29 statements of politicians. The most entries came from Ternopil, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions. An initial examination of the entries shows that not all were fakes – IMI intends to address this at their final press conference to announce the winners and consider how to improve media literacy so that people can more easily identify fake information.

Media Literacy Trainings in the East

POID media literacy training in Volnovakha, Donetsk region, March 15, photo from POID’s website

Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) organized two trainings on media literacy in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions to stimulate demand for better journalism and improve critical thinking skills among local journalists, judges, government and civil leaders, youth, librarians, and interested professionals. The first event took place on March 15 and 16 in Volnovakha and Pokrovsk towns, Donetsk region. The training, titled How not to Become an Information Puppet, attracted 23 participants (16 women, seven men), including

Page 37 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 representatives of print media which had gone through destatization reform (the privatization of state-owned local newspapers), local authorities, members of local civil society organizations, and librarians. The following topics were covered: journalism standards, basics of media management, contemporary media challenges, manipulations in media content, and development of critical thinking skills. The second training for regional journalists was held in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro region, on March 21. The training, entitled Media literacy: covering the election campaign, attracted 30 participants (24 women, six men) – journalists from destatized media, local authorities, and NGO activists. The topics studied and discussed during the training were election manipulations, jeansa (hidden advertising), fake polls and chatbots on social media, modern political communication and how journalists can identify political populism (what is rhetoric and what is an honest promise), fact-checking using digital technologies, and tools for checking information on social media. During the discussion, participants concluded that the more popular a media outlet is, the higher the probability of being able to find hidden advertising in it.

Detector Media Diversifies Formats of Media Literacy Products Detector Media (DM) developed a media literacy program for adults as a way of diversifying its media literacy formats for adults. DM produced five episodes of a 15-minute satirical weekly YouTube show called NewsPalm (KuMedia). The anchor and scriptwriter of NewsPalm is Yurko Kosmyna, a scriptwriter for Michael Schur's (the stage name of Roman Vintoniv, UA:PBC) television show. NewsPalm focuses on debunking fakes and disinformation, disclosure of hidden advertisements and media manipulations.

One of the shows, which attracted the biggest audience (over 23,000 views on Facebook and Youtube), portrayed the son of ex-deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Ihor Hladkovskyy, filming a parody of a “Nashi Groshi” investigation, Volodymyr Zelenskiy turning up at a 1+1 TV channel political talk-show, criticism of the selection of themes for the Priamyy TV political talk show, etc. During the reporting period, five episodes of NewsPalm collected over 61,000 views on YouTube and Facebook, doubling DM’s expectations.

DM also created and distributed five caption videos for Facebook that collected over 78,000 views. The caption videos explained major stories about the media sector, such as manipulations with candidates` ratings, participation of Ukrainian experts in TV shows on Russian TV channels, etc. For example, DM investigated the issue of fake Ukrainian experts visiting political talk shows on Russian TV Channels. DM brought attention to the fact that they are used to create the appearance that there is a genuine discussion (although it is all rigged in advance), very often being thrown out of the studio, humiliated, and even physically attacked by opponents. DM promoted its MediaSapiens media literacy website, as well as further developing the site as a media literacy platform for adults. While DM is in the process of testing the concept through focus groups, MediaSapiens published 411 online reports – 304 news, 102 articles, and five interviews. The site gained 31,400 views between January and March 2019. 2.2 Expanding Media Monitoring Efforts

Monitoring of Regional Media which have Completed Destatization Reform In January-March 2019, for the first time during its six-year monitoring activities, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID) monitored regional media which have completed the

Page 38 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 destatization reform in eight regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Lviv and Odesa. POID’s expert group, consisting of 24 people, evaluated articles of four newspapers and their websites in each of the eight regions selected. POID monitors examined local journalists’ professionalism, political influence on regional media content, selection of topics, quality of print and online publications, hidden advertising, and compliance with journalism standards and ethics. Experts also observed how the reformed print and online regional media covered the presidential election campaign in January-March. Overall, 1,398 print media products and 596 online products were examined.

On average, Ukrainian destatized media did well in terms of professional standards, with the exception of being able to ensure balance. POID’s experts also found the positive result that destatized media monitored were not passing on pro-Russian messages, propaganda or disinformation. However it was also noteworthy that very few (only 0.1%-2.6%) publications (even in Donetsk and Luhansk regions) provided coverage about the war and related issues, including military activity, soldiers’ family issues, and IDPs.

POID posted its monitoring results on its website and distributed them through press conferences. POID produced one analytical report and eight regional reports within the reporting period: Dnipro region media monitoring results, Donetsk region media monitoring results, Chernivtsi region media monitoring results, Lviv region media monitoring results, Zhytomyr region media monitoring results, Luhansk region media monitoring results, Kharkiv region media monitoring results, Odesa region media monitoring results. The overall audience reached by POID’s monitoring reports in January-March was around 660 views.

Based on the monitoring results, POID experts produced four analytical articles and distributed them through POID’s website: Bet on jeansa, National news as an ideological weapon, Hidden advertisement bares poor arguments of presidential candidates, Kivalov's media: service journalism of the XXI century and Russian world's messages. The overall audience reach of these publications was approximately 560 views. In total together with views of their material reposted on DM’s website, POID reached only 1,261 views. Internews is working with POID on search engine optimization and improving the distribution of its analytical materials online through social media promotion.

Results of Media Monitoring of Election Coverage On March 27, Detector Media (DM), the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (POID), at their joint press conference at Ukrinform agency in Kyiv, presented their media monitoring findings in advance of the presidential elections. These three organizations monitored national television channels, national and regional online media, and regional print media that have completed the destatization process.

At the press conference, Natalia Ligachova, head of Detector Media, presented the main trends in TV coverage and noted that: “TV channels, while covering the elections, demonstrated pluralism. DM observed the channels supporting certain candidates, and those which played the game of giving a stage to various candidates, though in the form of monologues on political talk shows. In reality, this pluralism became a platform for candidates’ public relations, and viewers did not get to observe constructive discussions.” Ligachova noted the innovative format of “The Countdown,” a new political show on UA:Pershy (UA:PBC) which featured impartially-moderated discussion between candidates who were grilled by two anchors,

Page 39 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Myroslava Barchuk and Pavlo Kazarin, election experts, members of the studio audience, and citizens from regions around the country. See Activity 1.3 for more details.

DM conducted weekly monitoring of talk shows on eight national television channels: 1+1, Inter, UA: Pershy, , ICTV, Ukraina Channel, STB, and Channel 5. Thirteen monitoring reports contained information on key topics covered, geographic distribution of news (Kyiv, regions, international), tone (negative, neutral, positive), balance of experts’ opinions, mentions of the authorities and political parties and blocs, and promotion of pro- Russian narratives. Each report received around 1,000 views.

At the press conference, Oksana Romaniuk, executive director of IMI, reported that online media employed what she called “jeansa pluralism,” in which a single online outlet publishes paid articles in favor of various candidates. IMI noted that there were three times more jeansa publications in the 2019 campaign than during the 2014 elections. According to Romaniuk, many candidates did not bother trying to attract media coverage of their campaign events; they simply distributed their promotional information products through various media in the guise of news. Black PR (when candidates pay for negative coverage of their opponents) was one of the key features of the 2019 presidential election campaign.

IMI monitored the top Ukrainian national and regional online media (with a total audience of 5 million people each) for evidence of disinformation, fakes, directed content, paid news, and violations of professional standards (prioritizing objectivity, accuracy, and reliability). These were: obozrevatel.com, segodnya.ua, 24tv.ua, tsn.ua, strana.ua, pravda.com.ua, rbc.ua, unian.com, gordonua.com, nv.ua, liga.net, ukrinform.ua, zn.ua, censor.net.ua, tyzhden.ua, and interfax.com.ua. IMI produced 17 monitoring reports, each of which received between 500 and 5,000 views. For example, IMI’s monitoring report about black PR during elections was viewed 5,000 times on IMI’s website and shared over 2,600 times on Facebook.

POID’s Natalia Steblyna reported that regional print and online media that have completed destatization reform did not demonstrate much interest in the presidential election. They published survey results, but sometimes would include several surveys in the same paper, indicating different candidates in the lead. Regional media discussed candidate ratings and published dubious polls, often without verifying the quality or credentials of the survey companies quoted. As a result, readers received confusing and inaccurate information. Steblyna pointed to an Odesa region newspaper that named Yuriy Boyko as the most popular candidate on its front page, while an article on the third page of the same paper named Olexandr Vilkul as the leader in the polls.

Objective 3: Implement critical media reforms

Results: • Independent Association of Broadcasters launched a new advocacy campaign promoting the establishment of community broadcasting (destatization of municipal television and radio stations), in line with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law proposed a new funding model for the public broadcaster, and and Detector Media published 73 articles about UA:PBC which were read by 108,000 unique users online.

Page 40 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 • Ternopil Press Club conducted three trainings on professional standards, media literacy, tools for countering disinformation, methods of verification of information, and digital security for 59 editors of local destatized newspapers, contributing to the sustainability of newly privatized local media outlets. • Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Regional Press Development Institute, Institute of Mass Information, and the Kharkiv and Ternopil Press Clubs raised journalists’ legal awareness through consultations and training, decreased the risks of lawsuits against media through pre-publication expertise, and assisted journalists at court. These MPU partners provided over 160 consultations and completed five pre- publication screenings, and media lawyers represented journalists in six court cases.

3.1. Supporting Application of Key Media Reforms

Creation of Community Broadcasting is on its Way The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) supported the implementation of critical media reforms, in particular, for the destatization of municipal television and radio companies (currently belonging to local authorities). IAB helped to develop the draft law on audiovisual services (specifically in terms of creating co-regulatory mechanisms for audiovisual content production). The goal is to establish community broadcasting (community TV and radio stations), in accordance with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

Within its advocacy campaign for support of the destatization of municipal broadcasters, on March 22, IAB organized a roundtable in Odesa for 12 (seven women, five men) representatives of municipal broadcasters in nine cities of Ukraine (Yuzhnyi, Vinnytsia, Kiliya, Chernomorsk, Mykolayiv, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Korsun-Shevchenkivskiy, Izmail, Uman) to discuss conceptual and legal aspects of creating community TV and radio broadcasters in Ukraine, as well as to share best practices of the destatization of print media, which is well underway (62% of municipal media and 23% of local government media in all oblasts of Ukraine have been privatized so far). IAB lawyers (Olga Bolshakova and Tetiana Fomina) provided participants with recommendations regarding sources of funding for reformed broadcasters, the legal status of municipal-owned TV and radio stations in Ukraine, and information about the provisions which IAB is advocating for inclusion in the law on audio- visual services.

The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) also provided support to the drafting of the audiovisual services law. In March, IMI’s media lawyer Roman Holovenko became a member of the working group of the Parliamentary Committee for Freedom of Speech and Information Policy. He participated in the analysis of the draft law and suggested five revisions touching on self- regulatory processes, ensuring balance in media, combating hate speech, language quotas on radio, and co-regulation of media.

3.1.1. Support for Advocacy on Behalf of UA:PBC

The Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) contributed to reforming the National Public Service Broadcasting Company in Ukraine (UA:PBC) by designing a new effective model of financing for UA:PBC. CEDEM experts prepared a comparative research paper on models of financing used by public broadcasters in other countries to jump-start public discourse about potential models for Ukraine. According to CEDEM experts, the best option for funding the public broadcaster in Ukraine would be a combination of various types

Page 41 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 of revenue, including around 10% from advertising, around 10% from rent of property and grants, and a portion of the government’s income from providing television and radio frequencies to commercial broadcasters.

Detector Media (DM) conducted regular assessments of the public service broadcasting reform in January-March and published 73 online news reports on its page (https://stv.detector.media/), reaching around 108,000 people during the three-month period. DM experts analyzed the “Countdown” political talk show in March (before the first round of the presidential election), informed Ukrainians about developments regarding the candidates’ debates (before the second round of the elections), told the story of regional UA:PBC branches, and reported on the progress of implementation of UA:PBC’s reform roadmap (developed by Ernst & Young auditing company). 3.1.2. Consolidating the Process of Destatization

Summarizing the Results of Destatization of Print Media The end of January 2019 marked the final point in the destatization reform for local print media in Ukraine. Those which did not go through the reform by the end of January had to be closed. To summarize the results of the reform, on February 19, the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) held a working group meeting under the title “Destatization of Print Media: Reform Results.” Twelve experts (seven women, five men) exchanged their vision of the outcomes and collectively identified specific issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure the long-term success of the destatization reform. According to CEDEM, by March 1, 2019, 564 out of 762 print outlets (80% regional government-owned, and 34% municipal-owned) applied for re-registration (which is the last step needed to fully reform an outlet). The result overall is that 74% of state-financed print media in Ukraine completed the destatization reform. Following the working group meeting, CEDEM experts prepared a Comparative research paper on the models of state support to media after destatization in March in which they suggested developing digital platforms for reformed media outlets and generating partial support from tax breaks, monetization of online platforms, and forms of state funding (through taxing major platforms like Facebook and Google) that would not impact the independence of the newly privatized media.

Success Stories about Destatization Detector Media (DM) published four success stories on its website about print regional outlets from Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Volyn, and Lviv, which completed the destatization reform: 1. How are destatized rayon newspapers in Kyiv oblast doing? 2. Destatization develops media independence 3. I was expecting destatization like a god 4. Destatized newspapers ask for state support

The stories outlined the main challenges privatized media encountered in trying to achieve editorial independence, as well as financial sustainability, a process which for most of them is still ongoing. DM experts coordinated their efforts with POID, which is monitoring content quality of reformed regional print outlets. Media Business Development Training for Newly Privatized Newspapers To help local print outlets become sustainable, the Ternopil Press Club (TPC), in cooperation with an array of regional press clubs and local partners, conducted three 2-day regional training Page 42 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 sessions entitled “Media Business Development for Privatized Newspapers: How to Earn Money and Stay Independent.” On February 28-March 1, the first training took place in Ternopil for 21 editors (11 women, 10 men) from Ternopil, Zakarpattia, Volyn, and Lviv regions. On March 14-15, the second training was held in Kharkiv for 22 editors (16 women, six men) from Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. On March 21-22, the third training was held in Chernihiv for 16 editors (13 women, three men) from Chernihiv, Poltava and Zhytomyr regions. The trainer was Dmytro Klimanov, a certified specialist and successful regional media manager. TPC identified the following challenges the newly privatized media faced: • Regional newspapers that went through destatization reform have no financial resources to invest in new staff, such as advertising managers, digital broadcasting editors, and journalists. • Regional newspaper managers lack knowledge of media finance, management of technological processes (design and layout), and journalistic standards. • Cooperation with counterparts in neighboring regions is low. Consequently, there is no exchange of experience regarding increasing media outlets’ profitability and developing relations with the local advertising market.

To address these challenges, TPC recommended the organization of more inter-regional exchanges and to work individually with selected media outlets to build their financial and technical skills.

3.1.3. Media Ownership Transparency

Advocating Full Implementation of the Law on Media Ownership Transparency The law on media ownership transparency requires that media outlets submit their ownership information, including final beneficiaries of income, to the National Council on TV and Radio on an annual basis before March 31. During previous years, most outlets complied with the law, however, those owned by national and regional oligarchs had a tendency to provide inaccurate information. Internews partner Detector Media (DM) advocated for the full implememtation of the law on media ownership transparency and published 12 articles in January-March to increase public awareness of which media belong to whom, encourage public pressure on media which are not in compliance with the law, and protect editorial independence. The most viewed of DM’s products were the following news pieces, that received between 1,800 and 2,500 views each:

1. The development director of Kvartal 95 Studio became the head of the internet-project iod.media. The newly-created outlet positions itself as an “informational and humorous outlet with irony, satire, sarcasm.” Kvartal 95’s development director is the owner and head of the online site. 2. The SBU asked the National Council to refuse to renew 112 Ukraine TV Channel’s licenses. Serhiy Leschenko, a member of parliament and himself a former journalist, learned about this following a request to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). 3. Poltava TV Channel City changed its name to “C-Central.” The channel’s license was re- established after changes to the TV channel`s name, head, and editorial board. Oleh Zontov, a journalist, civic activist, and former politician from Slovians, Donetsk oblast, became the broadcaster`s director. Page 43 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 3.2 Providing Legal Assistance

Raising Journalists’ Legal Awareness The Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) produced eight explainers for journalists in how to be in compliance with Ukraine’s legislation and avoid legal risks during their professional activity, which were posted on its website. On average, each explainer collected 24,168 views over January 1-April 21. The viewership of CEDEM’s website is approximately 32,000 unique visitors per month.

Among the explainers distributed for raising journalists’ legal awareness were: • How to reduce legal risks of journalistic investigations?—explaining to investigative journalists how to avoid defamation lawsuits and improve the legal defensibility of investigative reports. • Consultation on certain aspects of media activity during the election campaign— discussing whether talk-shows with the presidential candidates can be viewed as political advertising, whether broadcasters may air political talk-shows without receiving any payments from candidates, and how to present the results of public polls during talk-shows. • Online political advertising: first responses on global challenges—discussing the global growing role of internet in political campaigns and the views of major digital platforms – Google, YouTube, and Facebook – regarding the challenges which internet campaigning creates for democracy.

In January-March, CEDEM also provided 36 phone, face-to-face, and email consultations to media representatives, mostly on issues related to media activities during elections.

Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) lawyers provided legal assistance to regional journalists and regional private media, mostly on decreasing the risks of lawsuits against investigative journalists, advising on journalists’ work at voting stations on election day, and representing journalists in court. Overall, RPDI recorded nine individual consultations, five pre-publication screenings of investigative reports, and assistance to journalists in six court cases.

Institute of Mass Information (IMI) lawyers worked on raising national and regional journalists’ legal literacy and decreasing the risks of court complaints against media representatives working on election coverage. IMI operated its 24/7 legal hotline (050-447- 7063, valid for Viber and WhatsApp) and offered journalists a free mobile application at Google Play (allowing journalists to directly contact IMI media lawyers). The mobile application was developed in 2018 with Internews’ support under the previous USAID U- Media program. IMI lawyers carried out 84 consultations in total for the period of January- March 2019. Thirty-one were related to elections, including journalists’ сonflicts with local electoral commissions over taking photos of rejected ballots during the counting process, streaming from voting stations, and publishing personal data (shown as part of documents proving violations of the election law). Press Clubs in the East and West Provide Legal Assistance to Journalists Kharkiv and Ternopil Press Clubs played a leading role among regional players in providing legal assistance to local journalists. The Center for Legal Support of the Kharkiv Press Club formed a database of 156 media and journalists from Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions and established professional links with them to keep them updated on the necessary legal Page 44 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 issues, especially during the election campaign. The team provided 37 consultations to media during the reporting period.

In January-March, the Ternopil Press Club (TPC) lawyers provided legal support to editors and managers of local destatized newspapers. The TPC legal assistance hotline (099-986-6966) worked five days a week between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. TPC lawyers provided 30 consultations in writing, and posted 121 articles containing legal advice on the Ternopil PC website, as well as disseminated the information via other regional press clubs’ websites.

Objective 4: Strengthen and sustain key media institutions and processes

Results: • Internews launched the MPU in December 2018 with a “hard talk” event called #Informed_public – Responsible Journalism that brought over 80 journalists together from all around the country to discuss the challenges facing media in the forthcoming elections. Industry leaders called for a new self-regulatory movement to be created that would stimulate improved professional ethics for media covering elections. • USAID MPU partners launched on their own initiative a new movement, “Media for Conscious Choice,” in February 2019 that united 65 national and regional media outlets, journalists, and NGOs that signed on to a memorandum on ethical coverage of elections. The standards laid out in the memorandum included refusing to accept hidden promotional material for parties and candidates, black PR (negative stories about competitors), and bribery of journalists. In March/April a further 15 media outlets applied to join the movement. • Internews Ukraine worked with internet freedom activists and responsible government agencies to advocate for a digital rights agenda to be included in Ukraine’s legislation. This project is carried out in partnership with the Netherlands’ MATRA program. • Internews launched two research initiatives to help create a baseline study to promote Ukrainian media organizations’ future sustainability and fundraising abilities. The studies will look at the organizational capacity of leading media actors and the conditions for philanthropy and corporate social responsibility in the country, as well as other potential sources of future funding.

4.1 Supporting Pivotal Governance Mechanisms

“Hard talk” Style Discussion “#Informed public – Responsible journalism” Held in Kyiv On December 4, 2018, Internews, in partnership with its subgrantee Internews Ukraine, hosted a “hard talk” event in Kyiv called #Informed public – Responsible journalism. It was opened by USAID mission director Susan Fritz and Internews’ Senior Vice President for Global Affairs Marjorie Rouse, and assembled around 80 national and regional journalists, media managers, representatives of media organizations, and donors to discuss the media’s role and responsibility during elections. In her keynote remarks, Democratic Initiatives Foundation Director Iryna Bekeshkina pointed towards the high degree of anxiety felt by Ukrainian citizens regarding the current transitions the country is experiencing. Natalia Ligachova, head of media watchdog Detector Media, called attention to what she called a trend of media carrying out black PR and a steady flow of negativity in order to boost their popularity.

Page 45 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Speakers at the event offered solutions to overcome the challenges of disinformation and fakes. Among those: publicizing black and white lists of media (suggested by Yulia Mostova, editor- in-chief of the leading analytical newspaper Weekly Mirror); cultivating knowledge sharing journalism (by Andriy Kulykov, head of the Journalism Ethics Commission); consolidating independent media and promoting trusted projects (by Tetiana Lebedeva, chair of the public broadcaster’s Supervisory Board, and Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information); and promoting independent media as a democratic institution and an essential part of a market economy (by Tomas Fiala, CEO of Dragon Capital). The gathering was a step forward in the search for constructive solutions within the current challenging media environment. The next step was proposed as the creation of coalitions of media self-regulatory and regulatory bodies around campaigns to promote trustworthy sources of information for the public around elections.

USAID Partners Initiate new Media Movement “Media for Conscious Choice”

Press conference launching Media for Conscious Choice on February 5, photo from Detector Media’s website

On February 5, 2019, a group of media organizations, including partners of the USAID Media Project in Ukraine, organized a roundtable in Kyiv to launch a new Media Movement. Participants signed a memorandum committing themselves to balanced professional journalism during the elections. The initiators of the Media Movement were the Independent Media Council, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Suspilnist Foundation, Independent Association of Broadcasters, and Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy. The moderator of the roundtable, Natalia Ligachova (head of Detector Media), delivered the key principles of the memorandum: to distribute balanced, reliable information to citizens; to refuse to publish black PR; and to reject the bribing of journalists.

According to the memorandum, participating media organizations will carry out media monitoring, provide advice to journalists facing challenging cases, and promote best practices in Ukraine’s media sector. So far 65 media outlets and individual journalists have signed the memorandum which is still open for other signatories. Among the signatories are Ukraine’s Public Service Broadcaster UA:PBC, Ukrinform, Interfax Ukraine, Novoye Vremia, Weekly Mirror, and Channel 5. This action is a major step forward in creating solidarity among Page 46 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Ukrainian media dedicated to providing independent, objective information to citizens throughout the challenging period of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine this year. The initiative also demonstrates growing maturity within the media sector in the process of identifying constructive mechanisms of self-regulation to ensure good governance in media. The Media Movement will consider the applications of 15 more media companies to join as members in the coming month.

4.2 Strengthening and Expanding Partnerships and Coalitions

Internet Freedom Initiative In January-March this year, Internews Ukraine (IUA) worked on an internet freedom initiative that is co-funded by the Netherlands government MATRA project, working with state agencies, civil society organizations, and private IT companies. In March 2019, IUA was part of the meeting at the State Agency of E-Governance of Ukraine that launched a professional discussion on development of a draft law on digital rights in Ukraine – an important milestone for Ukraine’s democracy. This draft law was initiated by the State Agency of E-Governance, with IUA representing civil society’s views on digital rights. Partnering with the state agency and private IT companies for protection of internet freedom was a step forward within the initiative which started in June 2018, when IUA and key media organizations signed a Declaration of Free Internet in Ukraine as part of an advocacy initiative. One of the key principles was to enshrine digital rights and the right to internet access in Ukraine’s legislation. From 2017-2018, IUA was the main organization bringing together stakeholders on internet freedom, including the Ministry of Information Policy, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, and the State Agency of E-Governance.

IUA’s online resource the net freedom website hosts 730 online reports and explainers (as of late March 2019) covering digital rights and internet freedom. The audience of the website is made up of opinion leaders representing civil society, the private sector, and government. This resource has around 1,000 unique users per month.

4.3 Laying the Foundation for Sustained Local Media Actors’ Engagement in Democratic Processes

By the end of the five-year Media Program in Ukraine, Internews will develop a sustainability plan to prepare important organizations in the media sector for the end of USAID’s media project in five years.

Internews launched two baseline assessments in March 2019 to identify potential leaders to ensure media sector sustainability in five years, and potential resources the future leaders would work with: 1. Assessment of up to 20 media organizations and companies that could potentially be leaders of the media development sector or able to become leaders by the time the USAID Media Program in Ukraine is over (to be conducted by Liuba Palyvoda, external consultant, founder and director of the Counterpart Creative Center). 2. General analysis (research) of potential opportunities for support of media sector leaders (organizations and companies) by the time the USAID Media Program in Ukraine is over (to be conducted by Svitlana Kuts, external consultant, founder of the Institute of Professional Fundraising in Ukraine, member of the Board of Directors of the European Fundraising Association, Ukrainian Philanthropists Association,

Page 47 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Ukrainian SOS Kinderdorf, head of the Organizing Committee of the National Philanthropy Award, and head of the International Fundraising Consultancy since 2011).

The assessment of media organizations will provide Internews with relevant information to explore several options for media organizations’ sustainability, such as: 1) working with local organizations to develop their competency as convener, advisor, and donor to local media organizations and coalitions; 2) leaving behind a legacy of independent media organizations able to attract donor funding without the need of intermediary international organizations; and 3) identifying new and innovative models of sustainability.

An independent external consultant, in tandem with Internews staff, will conduct an assessment to determine the baseline competencies of important media sector players associated with: forming the agenda for the media community, building coalitions, fundraising, and re-granting. Internews’ baseline study will take into account the attributes characterizing the organizations’ maturity as institutions and their ability to serve as intermediaries between the Ukrainian media community, national and international donors, and business sector actors who are interested in potentially investing in independent media in Ukraine. For this purpose, while conducting the assessment, Internews staff and the external consultant will focus on organizational systems, leadership and staffing, organizational governance and health, ability to create a future strategic vision for the organization, innovation, values, domestic and international networking, and advocacy.

The research of potential opportunities for support of media sector leaders will provide Internews with an initial analysis of the state of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility in Ukraine. The external expert, in consultation with Internews, will analyze national and international funding sources for independent media organizations/companies.

This will include: 1. Review of international donors’ strategies (if available) in Ukraine for the next three to five years 2. Review of national philanthropic opportunities on national and regional levels 3. Review of Ukrainian government’s programs (at Ministries of Information Policy, Education and Science, Culture) for support of independent media 4. Review of other sources if available (e.g. businesses interested in corporate social responsibility) 5. Overview of sustainability practices in the Eastern and Southern Europe – in countries which have graduated from USAID assistance.

Both research reports will be completed by September 30, 2019.

Page 48 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Environmental Compliance

USAID’s Media Program in Ukraine activities did not have an impact on the environment.

Page 49 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Communication & Coordination

Internews coordinated closely with USAID’s Office of Transitions Initiatives (OTI), and USAID programs Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (ENGAGE) supporting civil society, Support to Anti-Corruption Champion Institutions (SACCI), Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS), Ukraine Responsive and Accountable Politics Program (U-RAP) – with IFES, NDI, and IRI on elections, and also held talks with the Competitive Economy Program (CEP).

Internews exchanged regular information with: - OTI, on its support for media outlets and development of media content to ensure complementarity with MPU activities, - ENGAGE, about potential grantees with which ENGAGE has already had some form of cooperation, - SACCI, on anti-corruption activities and to exchange information on their monitoring of the health reform, - TAPAS, on their grant competitions and consideration of support for media regulatory organs financed by the government, - U-RAP, on election training for journalists, - NDI, on adding an oversample in the east to NDI’s disinformation survey, - and CEP, on the possibility of sending their economics experts to regional media hubs to provide high-level interview opportunities to regional media companies.

Below are some highlights of MPU coordination with other donors and implementers in the media sphere:

Internews’ “Impress the Press” Session at ENGAGE’s “Integrity & Unity Forum” October 27, 2018 – Internews teamed up with the USAID ENGAGE project to organize a media-related session at the “Integrity & Unity Forum: Inclusive Reforms, Sustainable Change, and Resilient Nation” which was conducted by ENGAGE in Kyiv on October 27. The session was called “Impress the Press” and explored how CSO representatives can effectively cooperate with the media to get their key messages heard by the Ukrainian public.

Around 220 participants listened to Andriy Kulakov (Internews Ukraine) and Denys Bihus (director of the TOM14 NGO and creator and anchor of the Nashi Hroshi (Our Money) investigative TV program) who shared their insights into the media sector’s intricacies in terms of news production about civil society organization activities. Oleksandra Matviychuk (-SOS) and Olesya Drashkaba (Ukraine Crisis Media Center) shared their own experiences of getting the media’s attention to their organizations’ work.

ENGAGE’s “Integrity and Unity Forum: Inclusive Reforms, Sustainable Change, and Resilient Nation” conference took place under the slogan “Drama for 1,000 Visitors” and brought together civic activists, opinion leaders, actors, journalists, and video producers from across Ukraine. The Forum’s main objective was to “invigorate, inspire and empower citizens to forge positive, sustainable change in their communities.”

NDI/EP Delegation Calls to support UA: PBC, Mark Political Advertising, and Open a Facebook Office in Ukraine November 17, 2018 – Internews Chief of Party Gillian McCormack helped draft the challenges Page 50 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 and recommendations on media for NDI and the European Parliament’s pre-election assessment team. “Parliament should support the budget offered by the government to Ukraine’s public service broadcaster (UA: PBC); Facebook should open its office in Ukraine and unite with other digital platforms to fight disinformation; political advertising should be appropriately marked both in traditional media and in social networks.” These recommendations are listed in the official statement of a joint international delegation organized by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the European Parliament (EP) and led by Derek Mitchell, NDI President and former US Ambassador to Myanmar, and William Taylor, the Executive Vice-President for the Peace Institute and former US Ambassador to Ukraine.

The NDI delegation also included Christina Hartman, election expert and political advisor; Laura Jewett, Regional NDI Program Director for Eurasia; Patrick Merlot, NDI Director of Electoral Programs; and Mary O'Hagan, NDI Principal Advisor and Program Director in Ukraine. The European Parliament was represented by EP Member Dariusz Rosati (European People's Party, Poland); EP Member Rebecca Harms (The Greens/European Free Alliance, ); and Gerrard Killy, Head of the Democracy Support Department of the EP.

The delegation aimed to independently and precisely evaluate preparations for the presidential election in Ukraine, analyze the overall political environment, and consider factors that may interfere in the conduct of peaceful and credible elections.

Internews Discusses Cooperation with International Organization for Migration January 22, 2019 – Internews’ MPU leadership met with counterparts from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Ukraine to discuss cooperation regarding the distribution of information about the impact of internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the economy of Ukraine. The Social Cohesion project of IOM in the East of Ukraine will provide background for mutual efforts in the production and dissemination of information about livelihoods, social activities at libraries and youth centers (e.g. concert, festivals, etc.), centers for psychological support for IDPs, people suffering as a result of the military conflict in the east, and the results of IOM’s monitoring efforts of the state of Ukraine’s large IDP population. The goal of the partnership is to strengthen communication with communities.

Journalistic Investigation Supported by Former U-Media Grantee Wins National Medical Reform Coverage Prize January 29, 2019 – Kateryna Romanik, an investigative reporter with the Rivne Agency for Investigative Reporting, won an award for the story Oncobusiness in Rivne Style, which revealed corruption at the local Oncological Center in Rivne. She won as part of a national contest for media coverage of medical reforms organized by the U-LEAD project, which is funded by the European Union. The story revealed a system of bribery in the hospital as well as improper treatment and abuse of patients. Romanik’s work resulted in the launch of a criminal investigation against the Oncological Center’s officials and doctors. The multimedia investigative report was produced in 2018 with the support of USAID’s U-Media program, implemented by Internews.

Page 51 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Challenges

• As part of an initiative to support new groups and organizations proposing innovative technology ideas, Internews cooperated with Google Jigsaw to find a way to support an online tool called FakesRadar to help users spot disinformation. As FakesRadar is a group of software developers and was not yet a registered organization, Internews asked several trusted partners if they would consider supporting FakesRadar to achieve certain goals in the run-up to the elections. This was experimental, and also potentially a learning experience for Ukrainian media organizations, to support a start-up with little understanding of how a grant mechanism works. The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) stepped forward, and its role was to help the FakesRadar team launch a social media marketing campaign to publicize the tool and reach a goal of 8,000 downloads. Unfortunately, there were problems in developing protections for personal data in the application, which caused a delay in distributing the tool while the problem was fixed. This had an impact on the number of installations during the reporting period, which was closer to 1,000. FakesRadar was slow in reporting the challenges they were facing to IAB and found adapting to working with another organization hard. Internews, IAB, and Fakesradar had joint discussions and exchanges that resolved the situation. While the tool has been slow to take off, it has multiple potential uses beyond elections (including an unforeseen advantage of encouraging media outlets to correct bad information on their sites) and we believe that it has a lot of potential to be useful to Ukrainian online news consumers as it grows.

• When Internews’ partner Donetsk Institute of Information (DII) started its project aimed at increasing high-quality content in Ukraine, the organization had the idea of uniting the efforts of newsrooms from Lviv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kherson, Kyiv, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions for joint content production. However, at the first stage of the project – creation of the inter-regional network – DII faced the challenge that different newsrooms had contrasting understandings of the format of joint content, some lacked resources (technical and human), prioritized topics for coverage in different ways, and some were too focused on elections to actively participate in the network. The network was still at the development stage by the end of the reporting period – late March 2019. To overcome these difficulties, DII has reconsidered the agenda of the upcoming School of Quality Media, emphasizing non-political topics, healthy communication between newsrooms in different regions, how to define the criteria for what is quality content, and professional proactivity in journalism. So far, the first video about a bear shelter in Lviv region was released in early April (created through the joint efforts of Lviv and Donetsk newsrooms).

• Ternopil Press Club (TPC) has greatly contributed to the destatization reform in Ukraine in recent years. Its top priorities were legal advice and training management staff of the reformed outlets. In early 2019 (when the reform had to be completed, according to the law) Ternopil region was a champion in Ukraine with 85% of print media outlets privatized, compared to 74% of newspapers that completed the reform nationwide. Despite the high percentage of reformed media outlets in the region, TPC reported in early 2019 about the risk of closure for a number of outlets because of the lack of financial resources to invest in new staff, absence of know-how in financial and media management, technology, and journalistic standards. In addition, the decentralization reform created a new information environment in the amalgamated Page 52 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 communities, so the previous style of local reporting (publishing local government decisions and routine news) are not as relevant any longer. To respond to this challenge, Intenews regional partners propose highly targeted assistance to specific regional reformed outlets by providing professional training to strengthen their sustainability and operations as independent media.

Page 53 The Media Program in Ukraine USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 72012118CA00001 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Mandatory Cross-Cutting Considerations

Gender

Monitoring Media Products on Gender Sensitivity In February-March, Volyn Press Club (VPC), in partnership with the Gender Culture Center and the Independent Public Network of Press Clubs of Ukraine, conducted the first wave of gender monitoring of media products in 240 print and online media outlets (10 outlets in each of 24 regions of Ukraine). On March 11, the results were introduced at a press conference in Kyiv. Monitoring showed that women are featured in media coverage about education (48% of stories include women experts and 47% include women as main subjects), while men predominate in stories about the war (83% contain male experts and 86% feature male subjects), politics (79% as experts and 83% as characters), business (76% as experts and 79% as characters), and sports (83% as experts and 76% as characters). According to the analysis, the gender gap between female experts and male experts in media coverage in the regions is 38%; media feature men in 69% of their stories and women in just 31% of their stories. The featured story subjects in regional publications are most often men (73%), while women are featured in just 27% of published content.

Women experts were featured in 42% of the media in Kharkiv oblast, in 40% of Khmelnytsky media, 39% in Dnipropetrovsk, and 38% in Donetsk and Vinnytsia oblasts. The lowest rates were found in Cherkasy (22%), Ivano-Frankivsk (22%), and Zakarpattya (20%) oblast media.

On average 32% of regional media stories featured women as subjects and/or women experts. The highest average figure was 42% in Vinnytsya and Volyn oblast media, slightly lower in Chernivtsi (38%), Kharkiv (38%), and Kirovohrad (37%) oblasts’ media. The least gender sensitive media was found in Sumy (25%), and Kyiv and Zakarpattya oblast media (26% each).

In addition to monitoring media products regarding gender sensitivity, in February 2019, the Volyn Press Club also analyzed the editorial policies of 430 regional print, TV, radio, and online outlets in 24 regions of Ukraine. Based on the results, in spring-summer 2019, VPC will prepare recommendations for media companies to ensure non-discriminatory treatment of men and women in journalists’ professional activities.

In order to increase the quantity and improve the quality of gender sensitive media products, VPC competitively selected ten print and online regional media in February 2019 that will produce gender-related content through the end of fiscal year 2019.

Sharing Gender and Inclusion Policies with Internews Partners During the reporting period Internews’ Gender and Inclusion Expert conducted a training session for partners on gender equality and inclusiveness, covering the main concepts and the ways in which these mandatory cross-cutting considerations could be included into project design and how the communities will benefit.

Internews’ Gender and Inclusion Expert also conducted partner assessments regarding gender awareness (including information about their needs, plans and gaps in knowledge, and identifying the person in each of the partnering organization responsible for gender and inclusiveness). Internews shared a sample of Gender Equality Newsroom Policies with its Ukrainian partners. One of the core partners (Detector Media) adopted a gender equality Page 54 Ukraine Media Project USAID Cooperative Agreement No. AID-121-A-11-00002 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2016 – March 31, 2017 newsroom policy in March and published it on its website. During the upcoming period, Internews’ Gender and Inclusion Expert plans to organize a monthly bulletin focusing on information about good practices of gender-sensitive reporting, relevant news, and updates from partners on their progress.

Inclusive Development

In February 2019, Internews announced a grants competition for Ukraine’s 2019 parliamentary elections, gathering proposals to contribute to USAID’s Media Program in Ukraine objective of increasing high-quality, engaging content throughout Ukraine, particularly in the East and South, and to improve elections coverage, encouraging local organizations to submit proposals that are designed to produce content or organize activities that promote inclusivity, through women’s participation in elections (as voters, candidates, and other stakeholders) as well as that of minority groups that face discrimination.

MPU partner Suspilnist Foundation (SF) carried out a number of activities aimed at engaging youth. SF worked on an online debate and reporting format made for, by, and about young people, focusing on the issues they care about related to the election campaign, in collaboration with the public broadcaster UA:PBC. SF’s internship program for 22 young journalism students provided opportunities to gain real work experience with some of Ukraine’s top media outlets, including RFE/RL, ICTV, and the Village. Four of the students were offered continuing work and learning experience with the media outlets they interned at.

The Independent Association of Broadcasters (IAB) organized an innovative campaign aimed at encouraging young people to vote, by engaging five Ukrainian celebrities with large online followings to post social media videos and messages encouraging young people to study the candidates’ platforms and make an informed choice. The social media influencer campaign reached 1.5 million young people.

Sustainability

To ensure long-term sustainability of program efforts and, ultimately, sustainable independent media in Ukraine, Internews has launched two research projects which will serve as the baseline for development of a sustainability plan to prepare important organizations in the media sector for the end of USAID’s media project in five years: 1. An assessment of up to 20 media organizations and companies leading the media development sector or able to become leaders by the time the USAID’s Media Program in Ukraine is over, and 2. A general analysis of potential opportunities for support of media sector leaders by the time the USAID Media Program in Ukraine is over.

In addition, Internews continued coaching its partners in their development of strong institutional systems and structures, such as financial management, fundraising, grants administration, human resources management, and networking with different types of stakeholders within the media industry.

Page 55 Ukraine Media Project USAID Cooperative Agreement No. AID-121-A-11-00002 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2016 – March 31, 2017 List of Attachments

Attachment 1: Monitoring and Evaluation Attachment 2: List of Subgrants Attachment 3: Information on Study Tours and Participants Attachment 4: Success Story

Page 56 Ukraine Media Project USAID Cooperative Agreement No. AID-121-A-11-00002 Semi-Annual Report October 1, 2016 – March 31, 2017