"We are already in a war. A war of information", says Mihail Sirkeli, director of Nokta.md, a media platform in the south of Moldova, DW reports.

His counterpart, Renata Lupăcescu, who is editor-in-chief at Studio L in the southeast, sounds more optimistic, "Right now, under a pro-European government, we are moving in a good direction. We are staying positive".

Large parts of the Republic of Moldova are bordering Ukraine, and the country is thus directly and indirectly affected by Russia’s war of aggression, which has been going for over three years. Disinformation campaigns, financial struggles and threats against journalists are some of the key challenges for media across the country. Despite the challenges, the level of press freedom has improved in recent years, also for smaller media houses focusing on local coverage and close community-ties.

To support independent media in the country, DW Akademie and their local partner, the Association of Independent Press (API), jointly started the TRIMEDIA project. The project consists of several components, including a grant for local media. Five media houses were selected and received grants of €30,000 to produce quality media content on topics that are less covered in the public sphere but are of public interest at the local and regional levels. They focused on social cohesion, the defense of human and minority rights and the fight against corruption.

"The media that we selected for this program are all very different. Some of them are the only media in their region, some are facing strong local competition. Others have to deal with a great diversity of languages or are regularly fighting disinformation campaigns. But they all have the aim to build up democracy and strengthen social coherence," says Cristina Bobîrcă, head of training and organizational development at API.