Our Town
The public organization “Our Town” (nAshe misto in Ukrainian) consists of eight influential journalists and three political scientists who have supported the development of free journalism in Ukraine’s Western and Carpathian oblasts since 1998. During the last years of the Kuchma regime, Our Town published its own independent newspaper (also called Our Town) with financial support from some of the region’s businessmen. Three of Our Town’s members became members of the regional legislature in 2002-6. In the aftermath of the 2004 Orange Revolution, several of Our Town’s members began to work in the newly-formed regional newspaper, Reporter, where they continued their tradition of critical investigative reporting on government and business, including the treatment of minority ethnicities.
Goal of NGO: Strengthening democratic principles: participation in discourse through free, open media and establish a platform for such discourse, encouraging the active participation of all interested people in finding information on the rights and dignity by promoting tolerance and compassion for all people, including community, national and religious minorities.
Projects: 2008-2011 - National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Development cooperation between regional media, non-governmental organizations and government agencies for introducing standards of international journalism.
2013 - Social Media and Education. The US Embassy. Promotion of unification of initiative young people who wish to work in the field of media, including online media, through the establishment of the New School of Journalism.2015 - Creation the regional resource center for the rights of the community to have access to public information. 2015-2018 – Iimproving the quality of service IDPs (war refugees from Eastern Ukraine), increasing confidence of IDPs to the public sector and integration of IDPs.
2013- 2019 – Independent Journalists Club. 11 of representatives of regional media have joined to the club in order to defend journalists' rights of freedom of expression and freedom to choose of journalistic materials. Creation of the regional resource center for providing the rights of community in order to have the access to public information.
To know more about Our Town, please contact Dr. Andrew Mytykyn (Director): stanislau-if@ukr.net