Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, marked the winners of the All-Ukrainian Journalism Competition on the topic “Reforming Local Self-Government and Territorial Organisation of Power”. The competition was launched as pilot one by MinRegion in 2016 in cooperation with its partners – the Council of Europe Programme “Decentralisation and Territorial Consolidation in Ukraine” and Internews Ukraine NGO.

“I am grateful to the journalists who took responsibility to watch over and cover such a complex reform as decentralisation. This reform is very important for our country, as it affects the quality of life of ordinary Ukrainians. It primarily applies to infrastructure, kindergartens, schools, hospitals, outpatient clinics – and this about provision of services to every person,” said Hennadii Zubko.

According to him, decentralisation is the first reform in Ukraine, which is being implemented in accordance with the principles of transparency and maximum involvement of public institutions. Public communicators, journalists, make a great contribution to it. “An important aspect is the leadership among journalists who could take on a piece of responsibility for hromada development,” the official said.

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The competition commission, comprising representatives of all-Ukrainian associations of local self-government bodies, the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, experts of the CoE Programme, “Institute for Civil Society” and “Internews Ukraine” NGOs, reviewed 229 works in the following nominations: online publication – 90 works, printed media article – 66, radio material and video material - 73 works.

13 works (25 authors and co-authors) representing various regional media were selected for the final. The Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhya, Kirovohrad, Ternopil Oblasts and Kyiv have 1 finalist each. The Poltava and Kharkiv Oblasts have 2 finalists each. The Cherkasy Oblast is represented by 3 finalists.