On October 18-19, the ninth Donbas Media Forum was held in the capital. According to the organizers, the conference was attended by 857 participants.
This year’s Forum was dedicated to the topic “Borders vs frontiers: the role of regional media in the protection of freedom of speech in the conditions of prolonged war”. The main program was held in four parallel zones, with 47 events (panel discussions, workshops, presentations, a lecture, and a public interview) and the screening of nine Ukrainian documentaries over the two days of the media conference.
In total, 189 speakers took the floor, including: Ambassador of the EU to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova, Deputy Ambassador of Japan to Ukraine Yuji Tokita, public figure Oleksandr “Teren” Budko, People’s Deputy Yevhenia Kravchuk, representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War Petro Yatsenko, Deputy Commander of Army TV Sharlotta Khmelnytska, Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Anton Drobovych, Head of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics Andriy Kulykov, journalist and publicist Vitaliy Portnikov, Junior Sergeant of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, poet, creative director of Radio Khartia Serhiy Zhadan, Chairman of the Board of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine Mykola Chernotytsky, and the youngest journalist of Ukraine Kyrylo Perederiy.
In addition to the main program, the Forum hosted additional events, including a “Security Corner” where participants were provided with free advice on digital and legal security, a training session on digital security with a VR component, a lecture by journalist and publicist Vitaliy Portnikov, and a public conversation between Serhiy Zhadan and Andriy Kulikov.
«This year’s Donbas Media Forum was a record-breaking event in terms of the number of events in the program and the number of participants who attended the event. Now we can safely say that DMF is no longer just a forum for media professionals from the East and those who work with the topics of the East of Ukraine, as it was in 2015, when this initiative was first launched. Now Donbas Media Forum is the largest media event in Ukraine», — said Liubov Rakovytsia, head of the DMF Organizing Committee.
The panel discussions focused on thematic areas, including the resilience of independent regional media in the East and South during and after the war; the role of media in the process of recovery and reconstruction; Ukrainian media for the audience under occupation; digital tools and threats.
As a symbolic gesture of remembrance for the media men and women who serve in the Ukrainian Defense Forces, are in Russian captivity, or died during the war, special seats were reserved in the front row of the main hall of the space for those who cannot attend.
The DMF space also hosted exhibitions: an installation by the Window of Recovery: “A Window Jammed with a SBS Slab”, a photo exhibition ‘This is My Home’ by Zaporizhzhia photojournalist Kateryna Klochkova, and ‘Shot Freedom of Speech’ by the NUJU, an exhibition of artifacts of Ukrainian media workers who were injured or killed in the war.
During the event, participants had the opportunity to join three collections for colleagues: “Minute of Support” from 2402 Foundation — a collection for the rehabilitation of military commanders who were injured in the line of duty, a collection to restore a camera destroyed by shelling for the press service of the Separate Presidential Brigade from a media person from this brigade, and a collection for the medical equipment for the medics of the Donbas battalion from a speaker of one of the discussions.
As a reminder, Donbas Media Forum was founded in 2015 by DII-Ukraine as a platform for media professionals from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts who faced new professional challenges due to Russian aggression in 2014. The forum is supported by USAID, the EU Delegation to Ukraine, UNDP and UNESCO (funded by the people of Japan) and other donors.
