Developing Independent Media in the Digital Era in Eurasia

The future of independent media in Eurasia.

Kyiv, 24-26 September, 2014
Journalists, media specialists and organisations supporting press freedom from the post-Soviet region will meet in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, this week to discuss current trends in their countries and to debate the way forward for the independent media.

The conference, “Agenda for Change – Developing Independent Media in the Digital Era in Eurasia”, is organized by Ukraine’s Independent Association of Broadcasters, the Dutch organisation Free Press Unlimited, and the Global Forum for Media Development, based in Brussels. The conference will take place in Kyiv on 24-26 September, 2014.

The meeting will address two major trends influencing the media and freedom of speech in the countries which once made up the Soviet Union. One trend is the rapid development of new communications technology, which is simplifying and magnifying exponentially our ability to exchange information at the click of a mouse. The second trend is increasing control of the media in countries ruled by authoritarian governments.

Kateryna Myasnikova, Executive Director of the Independent Association of Broadcasters, says this will be the first large-scale regional event in recent years, gathering media experts from the whole post-Soviet region: “The internet has become one of the main channels of communication throughout our region,” she says. “In Ukraine, more than half of the population now have access to the Internet and the situation is similar in other countries in the region. Private and public communication now happens faster than ever before. On one hand, the independent media have more tools than ever to reach their users, but on the other, they are coming under increasing control by the authorities. This conference will address these two opposing trends, looking for ways to support independent voices, and also how to respond to the challenges posed by new technology and government regulation.”

“New Technologies have opened millions of doors to millions of people. Societies and individuals can discover entire worlds and specific information they would have never dreamed of seeing or reading in the past. But these open doors have pushed many uneasy governments to clamp down other doors. Indeed, the space for civil society has been closing in many countries in which the European Endowment for Democracy works. Today, and this week, in Kyiv, the birthplace of the courageous Maidan Revolution, let us jointly re-examine the plethora of doors we can open and re-open – together – with the help of the tools of the modern world”, says Jerzy Pomianowski, Executive Director of The European Endowment for Democracy.

The conference, Agenda for Change, is made possible by generous support from a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Union—“Strengthening Information Society in Ukraine”—and from the Open Society Foundation, the International Renaissance Foundation and The European Endowment for Democracy.

WHERE: President Hotel, Hospitalna St. 12, Kyiv, Ukraine.
WHEN: Wednesday, 24 Sept – Friday, 26 Sept, 2014. (Registration for participants: 24 Sept at 15.00)

For more information please contact:

Free Press Unlimited – Albana Shala, shala@freepressunlimited.org
Global Forum for Media Development – Caroline Giraud, coordinator@gfmd.info
Independent Association of Broadcasters – Oksana Kriachko, pr@nam.com.ua