Free Media Awards 2025
Gwara Media (Ukraine)

This media platform discloses to the world how Russian war crimes are committed in Kharkiv Oblast, consistently working with local sources to produce its news coverage. Several of its reports have documented the social, psychological and physical consequences of the war on the local population, rendering visible perspectives that are often marginalised by leading international media. In addition to daily news reports in which Gwara Media demonstrates its staunch perseverance in the face of threats, emergency situations and war, the media platform engages in long-term documentation projects. It also excels in the use of images, videos and documentary films. In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Gwara Media initiated an innovative fact-checking project entitled ‘Perevirka – Do it together’ for the city’s residents. As the second-largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv has regularly been a target for Russian propaganda, bombs and cluster munitions. Serhii Prokopenko, the current editor of Gwara Media, established the independent platform in 2015. It is actually the only Kharkiv-based newsroom that reports in Ukrainian and English. Gwara Media provides Ukrainian perspectives to the European magazine network Eurozine, which publishes articles on European culture and politics. It is also a member of IFCN, the International Fact-Checking Network.