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Joint Statement on the Role of Independent Media in Ukraine’s Recovery and Their Participation in the Ukraine Recovery Conference

10/5/20265 min read

Ukraine’s recovery is not only about rebuilding housing, roads, hospitals, energy facilities, and other physical infrastructure. It also requires strengthening democratic institutions, public trust, community resilience, and public oversight of the decisions that will shape the country’s future. Independent media are an integral part of this infrastructure.

Journalists, particularly those working in regional and local newsrooms, have direct access to communities and are well placed to assess how recovery projects are being implemented, whether they respond to local needs, and whether they meet the principles of transparency, accountability, and the proper use of funds. Media help identify corruption risks, ineffective decisions, abuse, and discrepancies between announced plans and actual results.

Independent media are also an essential component of Ukraine’s national and information resilience. They provide Ukrainian society and international partners with verified information, counter Russian disinformation and manipulation surrounding the recovery process, and help sustain trust in public institutions and international support.

At the same time, Ukraine’s media sector itself requires recovery. As a result of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, newsrooms have lost premises, equipment, team members, advertising revenues, and access to parts of their audiences. Many independent media, particularly those operating in frontline, de-occupied, and war-affected communities, continue to work under conditions of financial instability and constant security risks.


The recovery of independent media should therefore be recognised as a distinct and fully fledged area of Ukraine’s recovery.

The Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 was an important step towards recognising the role of media in this process. Media issues were included in the Conference’s main programme through the panel "Recovery Under Attack: Safeguarding Trust, Media, and Transparency against Russia’s Cognitive Warfare," and High-Level Roundtable on Ukrainian Media and Information Resilience.

This progress was made possible through the joint efforts of Ukrainian civil society organisations, public institutions, and international partners.

The next step should be not only to ensure that media-related issues are present on the Conference agenda, but also to meaningfully involve representatives of independent media in discussions on policies and decisions. At URC 2026, representatives of independent newsrooms were not included as speakers in the panel specifically dedicated to the role of media. Accreditation procedures also remained challenging, while participation arrangements did not always provide journalists with access to thematic discussions within the main programme.

Media should be represented at URC not only as a channel for covering the Conference. They are sources of local expertise, partners to communities, public institutions, donors, and businesses, and important mechanisms of public oversight of the recovery process. The role of Ukraine’s independent media should be discussed meaningfully and with the direct participation of the media themselves.


In this regard, we call on Ukrainian public institutions and the organisers of the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2027 to:

  1. Ensure the representation of independent media in the programme of URC 2027 and future conferences as speakers, experts, moderators, and participants in discussions. When selecting participants, particular attention should be given to the representation of regional, local, frontline, and relocated media, as well as newsrooms from de-occupied and war-affected communities.

  2. Engage representatives of the media sector in consultations on the development of the URC 2027 programme. Such consultations would help identify relevant topics, formats, and media representatives able to contribute practical expertise on transparency in recovery and the resilience of the media sector.

  3. Ensure that the main programme meaningfully addresses both the role of media in Ukraine's recovery and the needs of the media sector itself. These issues could be addressed through a dedicated session and/or integrated into key thematic tracks of the Conference, including democratic governance, transparency, investment, community development, and information resilience.

  4. Establish a transparent, timely, and accessible media accreditation process. The conditions, criteria, deadlines, and stages of accreditation should be published well in advance. Sufficient time should be provided for applications, taking into account the limited administrative capacity of independent and regional newsrooms. Accreditation decisions should be communicated early enough to allow media outlets to organise journalists’ travel and work.

  5. Ensure that accredited media representatives have meaningful access to open thematic panels and the main programme of the Conference. Access may take into account security requirements, event formats, and venue capacity, but any restrictions should be clear and communicated in advance. The media centre should complement, rather than replace, journalists’ ability to attend open discussions, ask questions in the formats provided, and obtain the information materials necessary for their work.

  6. Support the organisation of an official side event on the role and recovery of independent media in cooperation with Ukrainian civil society organisations. Such an event should create space for direct dialogue among newsrooms, public institutions, communities, donors, businesses, and international organisations.

  7. Include independent Ukrainian media in recovery programmes and financing instruments. Support for media should not be limited to funding communications activities or coverage of individual projects. Independent media are autonomous public-interest institutions whose capacity directly affects the transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of Ukraine’s recovery.

Supporting independent media is an investment in transparency, public oversight, and trust in Ukraine’s recovery and international assistance. Transparent, democratic, and sustainable recovery is impossible without independent and capable media.

Organizations and individuals can endorse the Joint Statement and add their support here: https://forms.gle/ySv3keJMduRYCUbz7

21 September, 2026

Signatories:

  1. Media Network Recovery Window NGO

  2. Institute of Mass Information NGO

  3. Reporters sans frontières / Reporters without Borders

  4. Detector Media NGO

  5. Women in Media NGO

  6. NGO “Practical Education Center Nakypilo”

  7. Lviv Media Forum NGO

  8. Online-media “Rubryka”

  9. Online-media “Eastern Variant”

  10. Ukrainian Media and Communication Institute NGO

  11. Gwara Media Kharkiv

  12. Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy

  13. Center of Public Investigations (Intent)

  14. Media Nakypilo (NGO «Kharkiv Crisis Infocenter»)

  15. Public Organization «Hromadske Radio»

  16. "Local Media" Chernihiv Region Hyperlocal Publications Network

  17. "Dnipro.media" investigative journalism

  18. Rayon.in.ua - National Hyperlocal Media Network

  19. CID Media Group

  20. ProMedia NGO

  21. Souspilnist Foundation NGO

  22. "SODA" NGO

  23. F-Media

  24. Suspilne Ukraine

  25. NGO Regional Press development Institute

  26. NGO Toloka

  27. NGO DIMENSION WITHOUT CORRUPTION

  28. NGO "Bilozerka Info"

  29. Independent Online Media “Expert-KR”

  30. Public organization "MAKES SENSE"

  31. Media “Poltavska Khvylia”

  32. ТОВ "ІРА РІА", сайт "20 хвилин" та газета "RIA плюс"

  33. Non-Governmental Organisation DII – Ukraine

  34. Media “Vilne Radio”

  35. Online Media “Horodok.city”

  36. NGO “Ukrainian Pirate Community”

  37. Varosh media

  38. European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

  39. European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

  40. KyivVlada, an online news and analysis publication

  41. “Velykopysarivska Gazeta ‘Vorskla’” LLC

  42. “Vist” Newspaper Editorial Office, LLC

  43. “Black Sea Community” Online Media

  44. P/P ZORG “VOICE OF THE REGION”

  45. NikVesti online media

  46. “Liberation of Crimea” NGO

  47. The Nationwide Newspaper “Bulletin of the Vulnerable”

  48. Online media entity: “Youth Portal” news portal R40-05836

  49. “Horizons of Izyum Region” media

  50. “Special Control” Online Media

  51. “Narodna Tribuna” Working Group, LLC

  52. “Golos Gulyaypillya” Newspaper Editorial Office, LLC

  53. 20 minutes (Ternopil)

  54. NGO “Association for the Digital Economy and Blockchain Technologies” (newspaper “European Time”)

  55. “Silski Novyny” Media, LLC

  56. “Zaporizhzhia Investigative Center” NGO

  57. “Media Center ‘Nad Bugom’”

  58. Life.Kyiv

  59. “Gorodnya News” LLC

  60. “Gorodnya Region of the Future” NGO

  61. The newspaper CHAS

  62. LLC “Hlukivshchyna Newspaper Editorial Office”

  63. Poltava Regional Branch of the Public Organization “All-Ukrainian Organization Union of Persons with Disabilities of Ukraine”

  64. Charity foundation "East SOS"

  65. GRNT.media

  66. Municipal Non-Commercial Enterprise “Community Television” (Pivdenne)

  67. Media Maidan, a self-organized media and analytical initiative of the Maidan; a Maidan civic initiative aimed at restoring Ukraine’s constitutional order, the Ukrainian people’s property rights to Ukraine’s national wealth, and the property and non-property constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizens.

  68. TBA TV and Radio Company, LLC

  69. RCERBS, a non-governmental organization (NGO)

  70. I-VIN.INFO, an online media outlet based in Vinnytsia

  71. EASTERN POINT

  72. MEDIA CENTER UA

  73. Ngo LSU, the “League of Justice of Ukraine” NGO, and the media outlet “We Are Vinnytsia Residents”

  74. Kremenchuk Newspaper

  75. “VSI SUMY PANORAMA MEDIA” LLC

  76. “Voice of Crimea” News Agency

  77. LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY EDITORIAL NEWSPAPER SIL'S'KE ZHYTTYA (LLC EDITORIAL NEWSPAPER SIL'S'KE ZHYTTYA)

  78. n-ost - Network for Border-Crossing Journalism e.V.