Support us
When the Free Press Foundation first agreed to support a small group of editors in southeastern Ukraine, the plan was modest: replace a destroyed laptop, wire a small grant, and step back. Within weeks, the modest plan had grown into something far more ambitious, the formation of an independent newsroom in a city where missile strikes arrive without warning and the windows are still taped in makeshift crosses.
The cooperative is not a corporate bureau and not a foreign outpost. It is a locally owned association of reporters, camera operators, and translators who share revenues, gear, and editorial decisions. Their bylines appear in outlets from Kyiv to Canberra, and they are producing some of the only verified footage coming from a frontline area where international correspondents rarely stay longer than a few days.
The decision to back this initiative came after months of watching local freelancers quietly burn out. They filed stories on cracked phones, lost drives to power cuts, and worked from apartments without windows. When a senior reporter lost his camera and notes to a direct blast, we realised that ad-hoc support, however generous, would never substitute for a permanent, owned structure.
Together with the founding editors, the foundation helped establish the cooperative, draft a shared charter, and register it under Ukrainian media law. The governance model was deliberately collective. Decisions about dangerous assignments, payment splits, and editorial priorities now pass through a members' vote, mirroring cooperative traditions already common among Australian producers in regional Queensland.
Each morning begins with a coordination call. Reporters in the field send drafts to editors inside the safer basement space; editors loop back with questions, fact-checks, and threat assessments before anything is published. Shared responsibilities then move through a steady rhythm:
Ownership is the heart of the arrangement. Reporters are not freelance rivals competing for the same commission. They are co-owners, which means safer assignments help fund more dangerous ones and the group benefits from the byline reputation they build collectively.
The cooperative now runs three portable kits designed for two-person teams. Each kit carries:
Insuring journalists inside an active conflict zone is its own puzzle. We worked with brokers familiar with the regulatory environment around the Australian Communications and Media Authority to build policies that recognise the unusual risk profile of reporters filing across multiple jurisdictions. Each kit also carries a personal safety protocol developed with retired Australian military public-affairs officers who have consulted on similar projects across the Pacific.
Reporting on a city that is shelled weekly means writing about grief, displacement, and loss as the daily backdrop rather than the exception. We invested in a structured training programme covering trauma-aware interviewing, vicarious trauma, and suicide reporting. The materials draw on our published reflections in the war trauma ethics review and on guidance shaped for journalists working under the content codes that ACMA-licensed Australian broadcasters must already follow.
Mentors visit the cooperative quarterly, and a senior Australian editor from a public broadcaster in Sydney now takes calls with the team each fortnight to walk through sourcing, ethics, and the small editorial choices that shape audience trust.
Independent journalism is a project democracies share, and Australia is not a bystander. The Walkley Awards regularly recognise brave reporting, and cities like Melbourne and Sydney host some of the largest Ukrainian diaspora communities in the country, residents who follow events closely and share clips with relatives back home. Many Australians already direct workplace giving to international causes, and a Ukrainian media cooperative fits naturally into that habit of distant but practical solidarity.
Supporting the cooperative also strengthens a global reporting ecosystem Australian outlets quietly depend on. When local reporters can keep filing, partner desks in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth can keep publishing. The dependable flow of verified footage, local interviews, and on-the-record quotes rests on these reporters being paid, equipped, and protected.
Over the next twelve months, the cooperative plans to expand into a second shift, host a visiting investigator from another conflict zone, and begin archiving raw footage for university researchers. Some of this work will surface during our upcoming annual gathering, with a round-up of recent panels and conversations available through our annual conference highlights page.
Donations to the Free Press Foundation are directed into the cooperative's pooled fund. Sponsoring a kit, underwriting a trauma-training session, or simply sharing a strong story from the cooperative helps keep a fragile but vital newsroom alive. The shells will not stop falling tomorrow, yet a newsroom with real owners, working insurance, and a publishing plan has a far better chance of lasting the winter.
