Open governance is impossible without open and transparent communication between local authorities and the public & media. In this regard, city councils should strive to develop effective relations with media representatives so that journalists can provide the public with accurate, objective and relevant information.
PLEDDG Project will help local government officials with initiating dialogue with the public as well as implementing an open governance model. We are launching a new joint initiative with the partner city, Ivano-Frankivsk, to create a communication strategy based on communication mechanisms and instruments for civil servants, the public and media.
On January 26, 2017, two round table discussions gathered two different groups of participants, with civil servants and government officials responsible for communication participating in the first round table discussion, and local media representatives joining the second discussion.
PLEDDG Project invited Michael Bociurkiw, a famous Canadian social media expert and journalist of Ukrainian descent, to share media relations international best practices. Kadie Ward, PLEDDG Senior Governance Advisor, spoke about how city councils could use relations with media to raise public awareness about investment attraction and tourism. PLEDDG consultants Dmytro Konyk, Professor of sociology at National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and Andriy Suslenko, producer and journalist from TV Channel 5, shared Ukrainian media relations best practices.