How to fund crisis journalism in Ukraine
The Kyiv Independent is using our feeling of impotence to create something important
Disasters unfolding on a global scale, especially for people who are perhaps not directly involved, can engender a sense of impotence. How can we help the people of Ukraine?
It’s the question that headlines Simon Kuper’s FT column this weekend, in which he concludes, “I hope we’ll be kind to Ukrainians. I hope we’ll crack down on lawyers, public relations firms, private schools, estate agents and political parties — not only in London — who live off the Putinist elite’s plunder. I also hope we’ll keep drinking wine by lakesides.” This is, I suspect, ineffectual and indirect wishful thinking. For many people asking that question – how can we help the people of Ukraine? – a more direct action would be preferable.
Which is why, perhaps, we’ve seen an incredible swell in funding for Ukraine’s English-language news platform, The Kyiv Independent. Founded in 2021, it’s a digital offshoot of the Kyiv Post, an English-language print newspaper that ran aground last year. Olga Rudenko, a former Deputy Editor at the Post, is its first Editor-in-Chief. It has a mission statement that says: “The Kyiv Independent provides fair and reliable news on a variety of topics. From Russia’s war against Ukraine and disinformation campaigns to the ongoing pandemic and medical procurement, from human rights in occupied Donbas and Crimea to reforms in Kyiv, nothing will escape the view of the Kyiv Independent.”
Ukraine’s newspaper scene is a battle between competing cultural influences. Kyiv Independent is by no means the oldest or most prominent English-language news source – The Kyiv Post has/had been around since 1995. Several major news sources – СегодняКП (Segodnya), в Украине (KP in Ukraine) and Факты и комментарии (Facts and Comments) – are published in Russian. Of the Ukrainian language papers, Lviv-based Ekspres might have the largest circulation, though there are others including VZ and Silski Visti. This is all reflective of Ukraine’s complex history, both as a crucible for effective journalism and as a meeting point of languages and cultures.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Future Proof to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.