The conference “Reform of communal printed media: first results and lessons learned” took place on 13 June, 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine. More than 120 editors, journalists and media-layers participated in the event.

The reform of communal media has been launched in 2016 and according to the current legislation it should be completed by the end of 2018. There are more than 550 (according to other sources 687) newspapers in Ukraine, established and controlled by the local executive and local self-governance bodies. As of today less than 50 of them have passed transformation process.

The main objective of the event was to sum up interim results and lessons learned as well as to share good examples and develop further recommendations to ensure sustainability of the reform.

During the conference participants discussed legal aspects of reform and challenges they often face with during the transformation process. Moreover, participants developed recommendations on further improvement of the legislation. Separate panel was devoted to the European experience in the process of media privatization.