Radio Taiwan International (Rti) hosted a special Taiwan session ahead of the Lviv Media Forum (LMF), Ukraine's largest media event in 2026, which opened on Thursday, May 14. The session, titled Distant Borders, Common Threats: How Can Global Media Partnerships Disrupt Authoritarian Infowars, brought together over 70 international and Ukrainian media professionals to focus on cognitive warfare in authoritarian states, platform governance, and global media cooperation.

In her opening remarks, Rti Chairperson Cheryl Lai (賴秀如) revealed that the journey was fraught with unusual obstacles, such as difficulty with Ukrainian visas — she thanked the efforts of the organizers for assisting the seven group members in obtaining visas the night before the opening ceremony, and in traveling overnight from Warsaw, Poland to Lviv.

Lai emphasized that Taiwan is one of the countries most severely affected by disinformation and cognitive attacks globally, which is why Rti established the Rti Academy last year to strengthen exchanges with international media and think tanks. She emphasized that Taiwan had to come to Ukraine to stand with partners around the world who are resisting authoritarianism and pursuing journalistic professionalism and freedom of expression.

Taiwan’s Representative to Poland Jeff Liu (劉永健), who was unable to attend in person due to yet more visa issues, delivered a keynote speech via pre-recorded video, focusing on Taiwanese support for Ukraine through comprehensive diplomacy. He stated that although Taiwan and Ukraine are thousands of miles apart, they both stand on the front lines of resisting authoritarian expansion. He quoted former U.S. President John F. Kennedy's famous 1963 West Berlin speech: "Liberty is indivisible; no one is free when one is enslaved."

Liu also pointed out that Taiwan is currently promoting an "integrated diplomacy" policy led by Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), deepening cooperation with Ukraine and its democratic partners through three pillars: values-based diplomacy, alliance diplomacy, and economic diplomacy.

Other forum keynote speakers include Taiwan Association for Strategic Simulation researcher Huang Po-jui (黃柏叡), Ukraine Information Policy Deputy Minister Dmytro Zolotukhin, and OpenMinds Data Journalism head and investigative journalist Yuliia Dukach, all of whom touched on information warfare and narrative manipulation to influence democratic society and identity. Taiwan Defense Studies Initiative co-founder Y. Joseph Wen (溫約瑟) detailed research on CCP military propaganda, which left a deep impression on the audience.

This is the first time Rti, along with Taiwan's Foreign Ministry and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), has participated as a strategic partner of the LMF 2026 in its annual meeting, opening a new chapter in Taiwan-Ukraine exchanges and demonstrating the close connection between the two countries in media cooperation. This kind of collaboration will allow Taiwan and Ukraine to move beyond material aid and establish a deeper relationship of media technology and experience sharing, working together to combat authoritarian expansion.