[3] The Ukraine Media Support and Advocacy Program (UMSAP) is a 22-month project to help Ukrainian journalists break through institutional barriers that engender “private censorship,” which is defined as state pressure on private media owners to withhold news and information that is in the public interest.
The project will work to expand the use of new media by journalists through training on new media technologies with an emphasis on recognizing and exposing different forms of censorship, and increasing access to credible news and information. The project will also work to expand legal and technical support for journalists, bloggers, and media outlets that come under government scrutiny and legal challenges for revealing censored material, and use new media to raise public awareness about censorship and develop resources for “citizen journalists.”
• Use new media to increase access to credible news and information by partnering with popular Internet platforms to act as clearinghouses and training regional journalists to use new media
• Provide legal and technical support for journalists and media outlets
• Develop professional capacity for advocacy to address institutional barriers to freedom of expression by using new media and raising public awareness
The independence and diversity of the Ukrainian press has dropped drastically in recent years; this is especially true of broadcast media. Censorship and other institutional barriers in Ukraine’s media policy prevent almost all of that information from being revealed on television, which is where the vast majority of Ukrainians get their news
As a result, Ukrainian citizens are effectively hindered in getting the news and information they need to hold their leaders accountable and to make informed decisions. In today’s Ukraine, the indirect tools of censorship have been augmented by the rise in “private censorship.”
By using new media to amplify public attention to journalists’ work, UMSAP plans to both inform the public and compel broadcasters to at least acknowledge some events and issues or risk revealing that they are censoring the news
UMSAP will partner with popular Internet platforms to act as clearinghouses that promote and amplify censored journalism, including professional and independent Internet journalists reporting on subjects of public concern that are banned or heavily censored on TV as well as censored television journalism. UMSAP will attract contributors through the regional new media trainings, which will introduce the hotlines, clearinghouse and legal services for censored journalists. There will be two hotlines: one for reports of censorship and another for legal services. When news of censorship and censored material is revealed through new media or phone calls to the hotlines, the information is forwarded to the clearinghouses, posted on Facebook and the censorship Google map, and broadcast on twitter.
By amplifying censored content systematically, the clearinghouses will help to inform the public on matters of public concern while exposing and documenting facts of private censorship. It will also provide an opportunity for original journalism since censored content has, by definition, been hidden from view and, when made public, will be considered original.
media@irex.org [4]