Who We Are
OC Media (Open Caucasus Media) brings you news from the North and South Caucasus, going beyond the headlines
to bring you in-depth analysis of the issues, movements, conflicts, and people shaping the region.
Our Team
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Our Mission
OC Media’s mission is to provide honest reporting across borders and communities in the Caucasus.
We strive to empower progressive voices in the region to bring upon democratic change driven by the spirit of solidarity and social justice.
We provide hands-on training to local media professionals and aspiring journalists to raise the standard of reporting in the Caucasus and spawn a new generation of reporters.
Our values
We pride ourselves on our commitment to ethical journalism and our core values:
Integrity
We are politically independent; our funding (from donors and our readers) is conditional on maintaining editorial independence and a commitment to our values. In our reporting, we strive to be unbiased, accurate, honest, and to follow the truth wherever it leads.
Justice
We are committed to social and economic justice for all.
Peace
In a region touched by intercommunal and interstate conflict, we stand by our commitment to peace.
Inclusivity
We stand for equality for all and give voice to all the diverse people of the Caucasus.
Cooperation
With our network of partners in the media and other sectors, we believe in cooperation over competition.
The First Member-Funded Media Platform in the Caucasus
Support Open Caucasus Media to help us make a difference. We at OC Media pride ourselves on our editorial independence and our commitment to our values. Sustaining our existence is not an easy task — as with most online media in the region, we rely on international donors to help make ends meet.
We will never sacrifice our independence to political or business interests, which means one day we might not be able to afford to be there for you anymore.
The content created by OC Media is published with the support of a number of donors. It is the sole responsibility of OC Media and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of our donors.
The content created by OC Media is published with the support of a number of donors. It is the sole responsibility of OC Media and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of our donors.
Reach
1,000 members
by 2026
Your support is crucial for us to keep delivering unbiased information, speaking up against injustice, and giving a voice to all the diverse people of the Caucasus, following the truth wherever it leads us.
Our story
OC Media was founded in 2017 by Mariam Nikuradze and Dominik K Cagara.
In 2017, unhappy with the media environment in the Caucasus, Mariam Nikuradze and Dominik K Cagara embarked on a journey to establish OC Media. Their aim was to create a progressive, pro-peace voice — a media organisation that would report the underreported and give voice to the voiceless. A couple of mistakes and some experimenting later, we are proud to say that we’re doing just that.
But independent journalism costs money, and we believe in fair compensation and just working conditions for our small team.
That’s why we aim to become the first member-supported media in the Caucasus — to survive in the climate we operate, and most importantly, to keep our frontline reporting free for all.
Independent journalism in this region is under constant attack and we’re only as strong as our members make us.
Our Institutional donors
OC Media currently receives most of the revenue we need to survive from international donors. While we would never allow any donor to dictate our editorial policy, we remain vulnerable to their funding schedules and changing priorities.
We have received funding from:
The European Endowment for Democracy | The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office | The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | The Open Society Foundations | The National Endowment for Democracy | The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic | The Thomson Reuters Foundation | The Black Sea Trust | The European Journalism Centre | The Embassy of the Netherlands in Tbilisi | The Embassy of Switzerland in Tbilisi | The EU–UNDP Confidence Building Early Response Mechanism (COBERM) | The US Embassy in Tbilisi | The International Centre for Journalists | the EPNK initiative
The content created and published by OC Media is the sole responsibility of OC Media and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of our donors.