Artem Bidenko, Chairman, Institute for Information Security
On 15 December, Josep Borrell, Vice-President of the European Commission took part in a European Parliament plenary debate on the recent developments in the Eastern Partnership countries.
In his remarks, Mr Borrell told he considers civil society and independent media in EaP countries as effective tools in increasing democratic resilience and tackling corruption.
“Strengthening resilience is the main objective and core element of the future Eastern Partnership policy. We will work with partners on five areas of resilience – economic, democratic, environmental, digital, and societal. I think it is key to empower civil society and independent media to increase accountability, to expose corruption and to enhance critical thinking,” he added.
StrategEast has interviewed the leading experts from Eastern Partnership countries to find out their take on independent media and civil society development in their countries. Here are the answers from the expert on Ukraine.
Ukraine is at the beginning of the stage of forming an active political culture, a culture of participation. This applies to all spheres of life, including the media. European and Atlantic countries have passed this stage in the middle of the last century, so the personal responsibility of citizens is the general norm.
In Ukraine, only some opinion leaders understand the importance of independent media, NGOs, the fight against corruption in all its forms (including political corruption), and try to shape the appropriate agenda. At peak times (for example, the Revolution of Dignity), such influence is a priority and strongly molds the development of Ukraine. Still considerable time is needed for the majority of people to realize the importance of these elements and contribute to their development.
