Ukrainian media figure urges adopting Denmark's independent media support model
Liza Kuzmenko, head of the Ukrainian NGO Women in Media, argues after a visit to Copenhagen that Ukraine should create a transparent state media fund based on Danish principles. It would replace support for selected TV channels.
Ukraine has discussed a state fund to support media for years, but no such grant institution exists. In an opinion column for Ukrainska Pravda, Liza Kuzmenko, head of the Ukrainian NGO Women in Media, recommends studying Denmark's experience. She is in Copenhagen on the MERIT Forum programme run by International Media Support (IMS), which brings together Ukrainian experts on media law and regulation. The text is the author's opinion, not the editorial position.
The idea in Ukraine
In 2019, then culture minister Volodymyr Borodiansky proposed a fund for developing the information space. In 2022, Mykyta Poturaiev, chair of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian and information policy, returned to the idea. It has not become a working system.
The Danish system
At Denmark's Ministry of Culture, Ukrainian experts were shown the state support system. Under the 2023–2026 media agreement, total funding is about €736 million, most of it for public broadcasting, with more than €76 million set aside for private news media.
Support covers national, local and regional outlets as well as digital media. Funding is calculated from verified editorial costs, and the main programme can cover up to 35% of them. Decisions are made not by the minister but by an independent Media Council of specialists in media, law, economics and public administration. An outlet's editorial stance is not assessed, and the council's decisions cannot be appealed to the culture minister. A separate independent Press Council handles complaints from the public.
In 2025, an independent expert committee concluded the system is too complex and still geared to print media. It recommended merging programmes and lowering the minimum newsroom size from three to two full-time equivalents.
Conclusions for Ukraine
The author acknowledges that wartime budget priorities are different. She notes that 738 million hryvnias are planned for 2026 for the "United News" telethon, while hundreds of other independent newsrooms receive no comparable support. The European Commission has repeatedly questioned continuing it over media pluralism.
