Governments can defend media freedom not only through statements and diplomacy, but through sustained, practical support for journalists facing real threats.
For women journalists in particular, funded projects can help women journalists stay safe, build professional networks, strengthen leadership, and keep reporting under pressure.
To mark International Women’s Day 2026, this article highlights some innovative projects supported by MFC members that demonstrate this support.
In Ukraine, MFC co-chair Finland has funded the “Media Bridges: Finland and Ukraine” project, implemented by the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine in partnership with News Media Finland. It is a two-year programme bringing together 10 Ukrainian regional media outlets together with Finnish media experts to strengthen self-regulation, media literacy and newsroom resilience during wartime, through online workshops, exchange sessions, study visits and support for self-regulation campaigns.
The project has a strong gender dimension. Oksana Brovko, CEO of the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine, explained that “women run most of the local and regional media in Ukraine” today, because many men of military service age have been mobilised.
In this context, said Brovko, study visits and professional exchanges are not just a training benefit – they are also a form of recovery, solidarity and leadership support. Brovko described the trips as “a possibility just to sleep at night” and “to feel ourselves in a peaceful environment.”
According to Brovko the project creates space for journalists to think through challenges that war has made immediate and urgent: how to report responsibly without endangering civilians, how to interview traumatised communities, and how to preserve press freedom under conditions of constant pressure.
Brovko explained how the project, “gives us a chance to build an environment of independent local media who are free to have such discussions.”
Speaking on the importance of collaboration and co-creation, Brovko added, “Each time when we have workshops, we have speakers from both sides and we both exchange our experience. We heard how that happened in Finland and we tell how it happened now in Ukraine.”
The project is a powerful reminder of what funded support can achieve. It can help women journalists improve their professional skills, but it can also re-energise journalists so they can continue leading newsrooms in exhausting conditions.
As Brovko added about the study tours to visit Finnish media, it “was also a possibility to find a new internal motivation. Because most of our newsrooms, most of our media leaders, they work in very hard circumstances.”
The project also shows what reporters from elsewhere can learn from Ukrainian journalists. “At the same time,” said Brovko, “we have a very hard but very important experience for you; how to work with propaganda, how to fight with fakes and disinformation… we already understand that the solution to keep the truth in the informational environment in the country is to invest into critical thinking of your society.”
In another project, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has funded work led by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) to develop an early warning tool aimed at detecting and monitoring online attacks against women journalists before they escalate into offline harm. The project was developed in response to findings from UNESCO-ICFJ research, “The Chilling”, showing that 20% of women journalists surveyed had experienced offline attacks which they associated with online violence.
The Online Violence Early Warning System, now anchored within the Information Integrity Initiative at TheNerve, the digital forensics lab led by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, is a digital dashboard designed to detect, monitor and alert users to signs that online abuse against women journalists may be escalating towards more serious harm.
For women journalists, online violence is often not confined to the digital sphere. Abuse, threats and coordinated harassment campaigns can drive self-censorship, force journalists out of public debate, and in some cases precede offline attacks. In this context, a digital system such as this one can act as a concrete protection measure.
Dr Julie Possetti, Director of the Information Integrity Initiative, said: “It’s vital that States invest in the preservation of media freedom, human rights and democracy, invest in projects designed to support the free and safe practice of public interest journalism online and offline.”
Another funded initiative focussing on digital threats to women journalists was the recently-published study “When Artificial Intelligence Turns Hostile: Gender-Based Threats Against Ukrainian Women Journalists”, conducted in Ukraine by Women in Media in partnership with UNESCO, with the support of MFC member Japan.
The study was launched during a public event featuring Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi of the UNESCO Representation in Ukraine; Viktor Baiov of the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine; investigative journalist Olena Mudra; Olha Kozub of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine; and Liza Kuzmenko, Head of Women in Media.
The study found, for example, that one in fifteen survey respondents said they had personally experienced online attacks created using AI, while 16% reported witnessing such attacks against their colleagues.
These projects, and others like them, speak to the importance of supporting women journalists according to the rapidly-evolving challenges they face day-to-day.
As Brovko said about such actions by governments in support of journalists, “Each single action is very valued and is needed. Each kind of support, each joint activities, it’s very valued for Ukraine because they give us a feeling that we are not alone in this fight for freedom.”
