Commentary
Democratic Security
Why Europe’s Defence Depends on Democracy – and How to Take it Seriously
26 June 2026
Ukraine’s recovery can rebuild the grant-fed press it had, or it can build newsrooms that pay their own way and answer to no patron. Building back better has to mean the latter
I sat at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) and heard media, information warfare and press freedom treated seriously on the main stage for the first time in 5 years. The work Ukrainian journalists have done under fire, reporting through blackouts, occupation and shelling while their own lives were at risk, is some of the bravest in the profession anywhere. I have been advocating for free media for a long time, so this debate should have pleased me.
It only half managed it. Why? Because much of the discussion I took part in, in that room and nearly everywhere else, kept returning to one question – what should be the different support mechanisms donors can provide to support media running during wartime?
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