What is the key to successful state changes? Support from legislators and the Government is definitely the basis for effective reforms – thus, changes are legitimised and implemented. However, the further fate of innovations depends largely on their support at the local level and public perceptions.

 

By Kateryna Paryhina, Project Manager at Internews-Ukraine,

expert of the Council of Europe Programme “Decentralisation and Local Government Reform in Ukraine”

 

At this stage, communication plays a major role. Conditionally it can be divided into two levels

Personal. This is the attitude of individuals who have already experienced the reform’s impact.

Media Level. Often, before trying or experiencing results of the reform, an average citizen has already formed an opinion about it.

According to the results of this year's KIIS survey, 1,74% of Ukrainians learn all the news in the country through national television, with 40% trusting what they see. Regional media are not lagging behind: according to an analysis of the U-Media2 project, 45% of respondents watch local channels and 69% read the local press. Such results testify to a significant influence of the media on the opinion of the average Ukrainian.

 

Three lessons of the all-Ukrainian competition

Reform from A to Z

In the first (pilot) year of the competition, it was important for us to support it informatively in order for the media to learn about the competition. After a thorough analysis of the materials, we have highlighted the major shortcomings in the coverage of the reform. In particular, many publications have suffered from professional inaccuracies. The reason is that journalists do not always have enough time to understand the innovations. This was the impetus for the competition organisers to conduct training for journalists in the regions. In the first year, 180 participants took part in it.

Press tours for journalists

As it turned out, local media generally do not have the same material and technical base as national ones. Thus, in support of the journalistic competition, we decided to organise press tours, joining efforts with another Council of Europe Best Practices competition, where hromada leaders and cities compete by regional achievements. In this way, we received 250 participants for the second year of the competition.

From the national to the regional level

In the second year of its existence, showing good results, the competition becomes the official MinRegion’s event. The idea of ​​similar competitions based on the Council of Europe and Internews-Ukraine developments was implemented in 8 oblast councils in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts at the expense of local budgets.

The materials for the All-Ukrainian Competition of Journalistic Works on Decentralisation-2019 are being collected until 30 September 2019 (inclusive).

Competition nominations: online publication, article (in printed media), radio material, video material. Please note that the material must be published for the first time between 1 January 2019 and 30 September 2019.

The competition is organised by MinRegion with the assistance and support of the Council of Europe and Internews-Ukraine.

For more information on the competition, please, see the MinRegion's website: minregion.gov.ua

Clarifying questions can be asked by phone:

(044) 458-44-40; (044) 501-92-03; (093) 403-58-87 or by e-mail: contest@internews.ua

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE