The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) held the final coordination forum in 2024 for government communications professionals involved in the implementation of the 2025 Strategy for Communications in the Field of Preventing and Combating Corruption.
The event brought together more than 100 representatives of government communication departments, well-known Ukrainian journalists, experts from international technical assistance projects, civic activists, and officials. During the thematic panels, the participants discussed the impact of the media on the perception of corruption and anti-corruption measures in Ukraine and abroad.
"When it comes to corruption, its spread or, on the contrary, its overcoming in Ukraine, we pay little attention to explaining how beneficial it is to be uncorrupt. When we complain that so much has been written about corruption that it seems as if it is everywhere, what do we offer instead? It is important to talk not only about how bad it is to be corrupt, but also about how useful, profitable and safe it is to be uncorrupt,” said Andrii Kulykov, co-founder of Hromadske Radio, at the opening of the forum.
One of the central topics of the discussion was the problem of forming a holistic perception of anti-corruption reforms implemented over the past decade and focused on long-term and systemic transformations.
"Our anti-corruption community of communicators seeks to expand the current discourse on corruption and the fight against it. The anti-corruption infrastructure is not just a few specialized bodies. In fact, we should also talk about civic activists, media, and anti-corruption commissioners working in all institutions. It is equally important to balance the array of information from government agencies about their anti-corruption measures. Currently, the media focuses only on punishment for corruption crimes that have already been committed, while prevention of such crimes remains behind the scenes. 96% of media reports on corruption are about punishment, while only 4% of reports are about preventive measures that address the causes of corruption,” said Olena Konoplia, Head of NACP Communications and Information Policy Department.
During the discussion, representatives of the educational project “The Price of the State” of the CASE Ukraine think tank and Hromadske media presented a documentary video and a preview of a documentary film about the fight against corruption in Ukraine. Halyna Petrenko, director of the NGO Detector Media, Roman Romaniuk, political columnist at Ukrainska Pravda and Otar Dovzhenko, creative director of the Lviv Media Forum, gave advice on what emphasis should be placed on anti-corruption communication.
Special attention was paid to the role of the public in combating corruption. Pavlo Buldovych, Head of the NACP Department of State Information Policy in the Field of Corruption Prevention, presented the results of an information campaign on the tools of public control over the government, which the National Agency implemented with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI).
Yana Lyakhovych, Head of Corporate Communications at 1+1 media, shared her experience of working with NACP on the campaign and EUACI Communications Expert Yana Ryzak spoke about other anti-corruption communications projects supported by EUACI. Andriy Tokarskyi, Regional Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA, shared with the audience the experience of developing and communicating direct democracy tools in communities. At the same time, Anastasia Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the media outlet Rubrika, outlined the possibilities of solutions journalism to raise public awareness of the tools for monitoring and controlling government decisions.
Another topic of the forum was the communication of new government services that are legal and convenient alternatives to common corruption practices. Representatives of several government agencies and enterprises, including the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the State Logistics Operator, and Ukrtransbezpeka, spoke about anti-corruption reforms being implemented in their areas of activity as examples for communicating comprehensive changes in the country. Representatives of these and other government agencies are regular guests on radio programs dedicated to preventing corruption. The presentation of the project was also attended by Ukrainian Radio host Natalia Sokolenko, who has many years of experience in covering corruption and anti-corruption.
The final panel of the event focused on the coverage of corruption in the media, the role of disinformation, and countering planned information influence operations. These issues were discussed by Maria Sahaidak, Head of the Analytics and Monitoring Department at the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Policy, Svitlana Slipchenko, Deputy Executive Director of Vox Ukraine, Heorhiy Tykhyi, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oksana Moroz, founder of the infohygiene initiative “How not to become a vegetable,”(meaning: to become a couch potato) and Maria Lipyatska, Head of BRAND UKRAINE. The panel speakers noted that disinformation and narratives full of negative value judgments on social media significantly strengthen the pessimistic discourse about corruption in the Ukrainian information space and affect the perception of Ukraine abroad. However, there is only one way to change this situation: high-quality work of the anti-corruption infrastructure, clear communication about the results of its work and refutation of numerous fakes.
Discussions and presentations at the forum were complemented by interactive polls of participants. Their results coincide with current social trends, in particular, a steady annual decrease in the number of cases of personal corruption experience of Ukrainians.
NACP recognized a number of government agencies for their active participation in the implementation of nationwide information campaigns, including the teams of the State Logistics Operator, the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine.
Summarizing the results of the forum, NACP representatives invited government communications specialists to join the development of a new anti-corruption communications strategy for 2026-2030.
The current Communication Strategy is available here.
The Forum “Synergy of Anti-Corruption Communications: Results of 2024, Challenges and Plans for the Next Year” was held as part of the implementation of the national communication strategy in the field of preventing and combating corruption for the period up to 2025. The event is supported by the Pro-Integrity project, funded by USAID and UK International Development.
