This year’s program will bring participants together around the theme “I_MEDIA: Human — for Human — about Human”— a conversation about how, in a world shaped by war, geopolitics, technology, and the loss of connection, we can return people, their rights, safety, and dignity to the center of attention.
In 2026, the organizing committee proposes looking at today’s media landscape through the lens of questions that are increasingly overlooked: how to tell human stories responsibly, how to build trust in an era of information noise, and how not to lose sight of people at a time when the world increasingly measures everything through numbers, reach, and algorithms.
A dedicated cross-cutting theme of DMF 2026 will remain the “invisible person” — residents of temporarily occupied territories who are increasingly disappearing from Ukraine’s information space. This issue remains one of the key areas of work for DII-Ukraine — an organization that systematically supports independent and relocated media, develops professional communities, and helps preserve connections with people living under occupation.
Donbas Media Forum 2026 will take place on October 8–10 in Kyiv and will bring together journalists, editors, communications professionals, researchers, military representatives, civil society activists, bloggers, international partners, and everyone who works with information and shapes Ukraine’s public space. In the coming weeks, the forum team will open registration and begin announcing the first details of the program.
Donbas Media Forum is one of DII-Ukraine’s flagship projects and, since 2015, has been creating a space for professional discussion on media, society, war, human rights, and the future of Ukraine’s information environment. The Forum emerged in response to the challenges created by the war in Donbas, but over time it has evolved into one of Ukraine’s leading platforms for discussing the role of journalism and communications during times of crisis and transformation.
