Netherlands to allocate EUR500,000 to Ukraine for new media development

Kyiv, May 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Netherlands will allocate about EUR 500,000 for financing the project "MediaNext: the Development of New Media in Ukraine" to be realized in 2009-2011, Dutch Ambassador to Ukraine Ronald Keller said at a press conference in Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

According to Keller, the project will be realized under the Matra program of cooperation between Ukraine and the Netherlands.

"This is a new initiative of cooperation between the Netherlands and Ukraine. We try to help Ukrainian journalists and mass media, and increase their opportunities to use new media," the ambassador said.

According to Keller, the project will be realized by two public organizations: the European Journalism Center on behalf of the Netherlands and Internews-Ukraine on behalf of Ukraine.

Kostiantyn Kvurt, the board chairman of Internews-Ukraine, said that currently "freedom of speech is present but social responsibility is completely absent" in the Ukrainian mass media, and in particular, the activities of the authorities are not reported in full.

In these conditions, traditional mass media such as television and the print media in the near future will compete with new media using the Internet, mobile communications and providing better quality and more creative information.

Andriy Kulikov, the director for program activity of Internews-Ukraine, said that under the project nearly 300 persons, among them journalists, bloggers, public organization leaders, and students, could attend training courses.

The training courses will be conducted in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odesa, Lviv, and Vinnytsia. The first basic courses will be conducted in June in Donetsk, Lviv, Kyiv, in July in Odesa, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia.