Nearly 90% of Ukrainian media survived thanks to grants. This is a consequence of the advertising market in Ukraine dropping in the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion, by 92% in the online media sector in particular.

Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), said this on Hromadske Radio while discussing the outcomes of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) suspending funding for all programs and projects for 90 days.

“And it (the advertising market. – Ed.) has not recovered. Especially in regional media. While national media got advertisers and started earning money – and they cannot cover 100% of their needs with that – we learned that in regional media advertising revenues now range from 3 to 10%. It is simply impossible to survive on such amounts,” noted Oksana Romaniuk.

She named the key risks of funding suspension: the weakening of democracy and democratic institutions in Ukraine.

“Because the media make the government accountable to society. The media ensure control over the government. They do not just inform citizens. They make all these stories, all these developments, transparent. And if there is no proper support for the media, they cannot fulfill their main function. What happens then? Corruption flourishes. Abuses of power, restrictions on human rights, etc. grow,” noted the IMI director.

Oksana Romaniuk also mentioned the risk of the media space being monopolized. She said that before the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, the media space used to be controlled by oligarchs.

“We had five big oligarchs, and all that is gone. Now, when the media are weakened, someone may want to take advantage of the situation to seize the media space, start controlling it and thus turn the media into a tool for some kind of influence. Well, I hope that this will not happen,” the IMI director clarified.

According to her information, 80%, and perhaps more, of Ukrainian media worked with USAID.

“The problem is that almost everyone had grants. The question is that for some, these grants amounted to 100% of their income and they could only survive thanks to grants. These grants amounted to 40–60% for some, less for others,” Oksana Romaniuk said.

She added that the grants were not only from the USA, but also from the EU and the UN.

“And even though American grants were probably key in the market and the US invested the most not only in the Ukrainian economy, but also in the Ukrainian media field, we still have European institutions, and I hope that they will now demonstrate leadership and come up with proposals for the Ukrainian media and the state. To support and protect us from what could happen,” said Oksana Romaniuk.

Earlier, the Media Movement urged citizens and businesses to support independent journalism following the suspension of all project funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).