Independent Media or Warmakers? How grants work: look from the inside and outside

Recently, the old thesis has been dispersed in the media space: they say that Ukrainian independent media are not so independent because they receive funding from international donors. All this is presented in your favorite conspiracy -style – about the State Department, Grentoids and Media, which work to order the event. ”

What is the State Department’s Temnik? It is a popular conspiracy myth that implies that the US government sends an independent media lists of allowed topics and narratives. In reality, there are no “temples”, and donor organizations that fund the media do not interfere with the editorial policy, which is confirmed by the analysis of the activity of grant organizations.

This thesis is not new. It has been actively promoted since the 2000s of pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, as well as the Russian propaganda machine itself. And after the Maidan, she was actively communicated with Dubinsky and Sharius.

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The accusations of “dependence” of Ukrainian media on grants were again intensified against the background of reducing USAID funding (US Agency for International Development) and possible revision of its programs. In addition, this topic was enhanced by the statements of the Republican Party of the United States, which criticize the government’s expenditures for international assistance. The White House Prescribe, Caroline Livitt said the democratic administration had spent USAID as “drunk sailors”.

This rhetoric is used to reinforce the idea of ​​ineffective or redundancy, which gives the propaganda the topic of grant financing of the media. As a result, it enhances narratives about “external management” and “American grentoids”.

But are the Ukrainian media reported to granted? Why did the United States finance the media in other countries? How does grant funding work and can it affect the media editorial policy? Let’s understand.

When did the grant funding of independent media begin? In the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, most Ukrainian media remained owned by the state or were controlled by oligarchs. This meant that journalists could not work completely independently: they either covered the events from a favorable for the owner of the perspective, or were at risk of being released.

At that time, the US and Europe began to support independent media not only in the post -Soviet space, but also in other countries where democracy was just beginning to develop. Why? Because without the free press democracy does not work. The US and European funds were already understood that the media that exist exclusively at the expense of oligarchs or the state could not effectively form objective public opinion, as far as possible, as well as to control power.

Who else is funded by America? The US is funded not only by Ukraine. Similar media support programs operate in Georgia, Moldova, Balkan Region, Latin America and Africa. The main purpose of these programs is to support democracy, free access to information and fight authoritarian influence.

Since the mid-1990s, the first media preectors began to appear, with grant support. This allowed journalists to avoid financial dependence on political structures and oligarchic groups, which was an important step towards creating independent journalism.

What are grants and how do they work? Grants Is the irreversible financial assistance provided by governments, international organizations and private funds for socially important projects. In Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Economy, since July 2022, more than 10,000 microgrants were issued in the amount of UAH 2.4 billion to support small businesses, as well as 660 grants for UAH 3.3 billion for the development of gardening and greenhouse.

In total, more than 30% of Ukraine’s external financial support since the start of a full -scale war have been grants, and the EU ($ 40.5 billion) and the United States ($ 28.2 billion) became the largest donors. These funds were directed, first of all, not to the media, but also to medicine, infrastructure, education and entrepreneurship.

Therefore, grants in the field of media, as in other areas, are not “feeds” and not “redemption”, as some conspirators try to present. It is one of the models for financing independent journalism that allows you to function without state or business control. How is it working?

Grants do not appear just like that. In order to obtain a grant, the media must submit an application that is selected. The application contains the project plan, its goals, budget, key expected results. Granders evaluate applications and choose the best.

Granders do not control content. The grant does not mean that the media receive “temperax” or instructions. The grant covers the production of journalistic content, but journalists themselves choose topics and approaches.

Control – only financial transparency. Donors check whether money is spent on their intended purpose rather than interfering with editorial policy.

We look at the situation at different angles: the opinions of experts To show the situation from different sides, we have addressed experts who work directly with the media, international grants and legal issues in the media. They told how grants function, which are control mechanisms and why the statement about “Media’s dependence” – manipulative.

Donor has no right to interfere with content and indicate what specifically investigation to do

Irina Shiba, Deputy Head of the EU Anti -Corruption Initiative EU Anti -Corruption Initiative (Euaci) Is a program funded by the European Union to support anti -corruption reforms in Ukraine. It works with authorities, civil society and media, contributing to the transparency, accountability and independence of anti -corruption bodies. One of its areas is the support of journalistic investigations and analytics, which helps to expose corruption and illegal schemes.

“We conduct open competitions to select grenters. We check each organization for financial transparency, ask audits and sources of funding to make sure that the organization has no connection, for example, with a political party, a separate politician or does not have Russian funding.”

The applications are checked by the competition commission with external experts with the media or anti -corruption sector. External experts also attract many other donors – for example, the Renaissance Fund.

“Relationships between a donor and grenters are clearly described in a grant agreement. All documents and correspondences are archived. The donor has no right to interfere with content and indicate what specifically investigation to do. I have been in charge of Euaci for 5 years, headed a public organization, cooperated with more than 15 different donations, and None of them has never interfered with the content of the documents or analytics we were preparing.

If an organization makes analytics biased and not qualitatively, it is another matter. Then donors can stop funding to refuse to support the organization in the future. “

Cities where there are independent media, k They are controlled by their elites, there is less corruption, there is better infrastructure and larger city budgets

Eugene Zaslavsky – MDF Executive Director Eugene Zaslavsky manages Media Development Foundation (MDF) is an organization that supports independent Ukrainian media. In the focus of MDF – the development of journalistic projects, training of reporters and assistance by local media.

“Studies show that cities where there are independent media are better controlled by their elites, there is less corruption, there is better infrastructure and larger city budgets. Therefore, donors and funded by independent media are funded for cities to develop, not turn into zombiland.”

Eugene notes that donors have their requirements, but do not control what journalists write about. This is radically different from politicians or oligarchs who buy media for their own benefit.

“Grandors in the media sector are more than 150. I would like to look at this brain as in the Star Town, which writes” Temnik “for all 150 completely different organizations.

The donor always has requirements: content that promotes climate business, content that contributes to the reduction of social tension, content that affects the integrity and transparency of actions of government and business, content that promotes the resistance of Ukrainians to the challenges Grentoids.

“Grentoids’ myths are profitable for those who are afraid of criticism”

Kateryna Laba – the leader of the projects of Institute for War and Peace Reporting Catherine Laba has extensive experience in working with international donors. It has been supporting independent media since the 1990s and understands how the media financing mechanisms have developed.

“In my eyes there was an evolution of such support – from only exercises – trainings, internships, training trips, exchanges for experience, to grant grants since the mid -2000s for narrow certain activities – such as creating sites, when almost no one has no one in It was, or the production of content on certain socially significant topics that could not have enough resources.

How will grant cuts hit democracy?
“59.2% of journalists predict catastrophic consequences as a result of stopping US international grants,” they write at the Media Institute after a survey analysis.

Reducing grant financing of independent media is not only a problem in Ukraine, but a global process that will affect the balance of democracy and authoritarianism in the world.

Strengthening of autocractions. The absence of independent media means that governments and oligarchs receive full control over the information field. Dictatorial regimes have long been using this approach: in Russia, China, Belarus, Hungary, the state -controlled media is the main source of information for the population.”I would remind that from Russia and Belarus the media support program of such international organizations, such as Irex and Internews, was thrown back in the mid-2000s, and those who cooperated with them were subsequently announced by foreign agents. And we have, despite all the chronic diseases of the media market, a very powerful and pluralistic media landscape. “

Propaganda. Without independent journalists who can ask inconvenient questions to representatives of the authorities, freely analyze events and expose corruption, misinformation campaigns will be dominated. Already in some countries of Africa and Latin America, pro -Russian and Processing media are replacing local independent editions.Even in developed democracies such as the United States, misinformation remains a serious threat, undermining confidence in democratic institutions.

According to research, 60% of Americans consider misinformation one of the main problems in the country, because it affects elections, political polarization and public opinion. The closure of the Center for Global Interaction (GEC), which fought with propaganda, has caused anxiety about the effectiveness of the United States in counteracting information threats. Russia is actively using social networks to intervene in election and spread manipulative content, which confirmed numerous investigations after the 2016 elections.

Weakening the international influence of democratic countries. The US and Europe have been invested in support of democratic values ​​through grant programs for many years. If these programs collapse, it will mean that authoritarian states will get more opportunities to promote their own narratives. International media writes about such sad prospects.

• Weakening independent media worldwide.
• Increasing the impact of authoritarian regimes that will be less controlled by society.
• Expanding misinformation campaigns, as free journalists will be more difficult to counteract fakes.

What to do with it?

• Check the sources and not disseminate unconfirmed information.
• Maintain independent media.
• To share quality materials to spread the truth.
• Learn media literacy to distinguish facts from manipulations.

If there is no free media, society will only find out what is beneficial to politicians and business. Due to the reduction of international financing, many independent editions in the world have already reduced teams or closed.

In order not to happen in Ukraine, the support of the citizens themselves is important. Donates allow journalists to continue their work, release investigations and expose fraud. Without this, the space will be filled with propagandists and oligarchic media.

A column is a material that reflects the author’s point of view. The text of the column does not claim the objectivity and comprehensive coverage of the topic that rises in it. The editorial board of “Ukrainian Truth” is not responsible for the accuracy and interpretation of the information provided and plays only the role of the carrier. The point of view of the UP editorial board may not coincide with the point of view of the author of the column.