“Our fact-checking is reaching a new level,” NUJU course participants say about their learning outcomes

Journalists on the border are the first to encounter fakes and distorted information about war-related events. At the same time, they are the first to refute them before these fakes gain significant publicity and spread. Therefore, responding correctly, refuting, informing, covering tragic and complex events, showing human stories, resisting pressure and cyberattacks – all these are today’s challenges for border and frontline local media. Despite the lack of personnel, power, and communication outages, shelling, destruction of newsrooms, and forced relocation, our colleagues overcome these challenges every day and work to be a source of objective information for community residents.

The training course, titled “Strengthening the Resilience of Frontline Media as a Tool for Combating Disinformation,” is designed to enhance the capacity of local media in frontline and border regions. This initiative is being implemented by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) with the support of the Embassy of Lithuania in Ukraine.

The first half of the course has yielded six mentoring sessions, webinars from experienced colleagues working in national and international media, and approximately three dozen publications by participants.

Countering Fake News – New Tools and Knowledge

“On September 4, the russians struck workers of the humanitarian demining mission “Danish Refugee Council” with an Iskander-M ballistic missile. Two people were killed, and up to a dozen civilian deminers were injured. After the tragedy near Chernihiv, russian resources distributed a video claiming that their strike was directed at a “drone launch center.”

In the material distributed by our publication, the daughter of the deceased Serhii Molyboha, Valeriya, directly refuted this lie:

“If you look closely, in that video, you can see that in addition to people, there are eight minibuses. Dad’s car was under the target.

Eight minibuses and civilian workers, not a military facility. This is how local journalists refute russian informational inserts. Russian propaganda tried to strike at humanitarian workers as “the destruction of a military facility.” Testimony from relatives and colleagues confirmed that, in fact, it was about civilian deminers who were engaged in mine clearance.”

These are the words of Olha Makukha, editor of the Chernihiv-based newspaper, Vist. And this is an example of how important the role of local media is in refuting russian lies. “It is important for the publication to convey such testimonies to readers, because they are the ones that destroy hostile narratives and show the truth about russia’s targeted attacks on civilians,” says Ms. Olha.

“During the training, we received clearer guidelines on how local media can counteract disinformation,” adds the editor. “It was important for us to fill in the gaps in knowledge on how to verify information in wartime, how to work with open sources correctly, and prevent the spread of fakes. We are now actively applying fact-checking and photo and video content verification tools in practice.”

Other project participants also speak about the importance of countering disinformation. Tetiana Lohvina, the head of the Visti Zmiyivshchyny publication from the Kharkiv Region, emphasizes that the importance of professional growth is now enormous, especially in countering disinformation and fake news. After all, nowadays, when everyone has to deal with a huge amount of information from various sources, even the most “advanced” people can get lost and perceive fakes as reality.

“Countering disinformation is one of the main directions of journalism today; we are constantly faced with information attacks from the enemy,” confirms Svitlana Tomash, editor of the Chernihiv-based Visti Horodnianshchyny newspaper. “Of course, we received some knowledge before, but our mentor, Ms. Tetiana Ivanova, revealed all the nuances so interestingly that now we can freely navigate the information space. It has become much easier to distinguish fake and propaganda materials of the enemy and organize professional counteraction.”

Tetiana Kaushan, editor of the Putyvlski Vedomosti newspaper from the Sumy Region, also discovered several new tools for combating fake and distorted information during her studies.

“Our fact-checking is reaching a new level,” notes Tetiana. “Journalists on the border are the first to encounter distorted information. That is why they often have to deny something, explain it to readers. When you have such tools as we learned about in this course, it helps a lot.”

Her colleague from the Sumy Region, the editor of the Panorama newspaper, Olena Kasatkina, adds, “Local newsrooms are the first to react to events in communities, and people in these communities trust local media more often. “It is faster for us to find a way to counteract fake news on the spot,” Even before it gains momentum.”

Media literacy mentor, media expert, professor, and head of the Department of Social Communications at Mariupol State University, Tetiana Ivanova, says, “Course participants are aware of the influx of fake news as a problem, the importance of fighting it, and counterpropaganda. At the same time, they cannot always distinguish which fake news requires a response and which does not; they lack criteria for assessing the danger of fake news; and so on.

“Of course, all these problems were worked out during the mentoring sessions,” said Tetiana Ivanova. “There is another problem: journalists must be familiar not only with the verification of fakes and the peculiarities of refutation, but also with the technologies for creating fakes and the psychology of their influence. This is already a branch of the psychology of manipulation, and this is what aroused the special interest of the participants. Of course, such knowledge is very necessary for journalists, because they are the ones who hold the information front.”

Digital tools – help for media working in conditions of a lack of resources

Media journalists, as project participants, work under a high workload in small teams, where there is a noticeable personnel shortage, in conditions of high danger due to hostilities and constant stress. Therefore, mastering new technologies for them also brings relief to their work. Especially with the help of such tools as artificial intelligence, which can be “assigned” to perform part of the work. This is emphasized by the participants, who note the benefits of mentoring sessions on digitalization, as presented by journalist and media trainer Andrii Yurychko.

“Andrii Yurychko’s sessions were very helpful, where he talked about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, in particular, in decoding records. This greatly simplifies the work of newsrooms like ours, since we work in conditions of limited human resources,” notes Tetiana Kaushan, editor of the Putylivski Vidomosti newspaper.

Olena Kasatkina, the editor of the Panorama newspaper, also emphasizes the importance and benefits of mentoring sessions on digitalization.

Tetiana Lohvina, the editor of the Vesti Zmiyivshchyny newspaper, is also testing the possibilities of artificial intelligence. She notes that local media employees cannot always navigate new digital challenges independently, so digitalization sessions are crucial for the newsroom.

“When it comes to digitalization, local Ukrainian newsrooms feel confused at a crossroads. On the one hand, they recognize the impact of new technologies and want to join the latest processes of audience outreach, but on the other hand, they have stumbled upon the lack of skills, specialists, and equipment to implement them. And there is always a fear of losing the existing audience,” comments mentor Andrii Yurychko.

The expert adds that the topic of digital security proved to be the most popular because, despite awareness of digital threats, in practice, few people use appropriate tools, such as antivirus software.

The module on working with large language models also attracted interest with its practical results – saving resources and time on proofreading materials and “repackaging” finished materials for social networks.

“The program is designed to cover the most painful points of media work and is currently moving in the planned direction. The newsrooms are gradually introducing something new, thanks to the fact that they not only understood and saw how it should work, but also tried it themselves and understand how they can apply it all in their own country,” says Andrii Yurychko.

First and foremost, for the newsrooms of the frontline regions that were able to continue working after 2022, the audience is family. And they work for it, and reach and clicks on social networks remain abstract numbers.

Human stories tell the world the truth about the war in Ukraine

True and interesting content is another tool in journalists’ arsenal in the fight against disinformation. Stories about people affected by the war, particularly children, arouse the greatest interest among the international audience. Therefore, each journalistic material is a small brick in the evidence base that russia is committing genocidal actions against Ukraine and Ukrainians. The participants of the training course learn the specifics of presenting such content with journalist Yuliya Surkova, who has experience in covering the war in international media since 2014.

“In our border community, most journalistic materials are related to sensitive content. I had no experience writing specifically for international media. Thanks to Yuliya’s patronage, I learned this with great desire. I liked how the materials changed so that I will apply this knowledge in my future work,” shares Svitlana Tomash, the editor of the Chernihiv-based Visti Horodnianshchyny newspaper.

Dramatic human stories often appear on the pages of the Kherson Region’s Novyi Den publication. Its editor, Anatolii Zhupyna, also notes the help of mentor Yuliya Surkova in finding new topics and angles for presenting materials. True information about the Kherson Region and its residents is important not only for the international audience, but also for those residents of the region who have found themselves in the temporarily occupied territory. Thanks to these publications, they can see a real picture of events, not clouded by propaganda.

Mentor Yuliya Surkova advises participants not to be “hyperlocal,” but to add a nationwide context, more background and figures to their materials.

“If you give more such details, the text will be more professional, and this is also part of the fight against disinformation. How does propaganda work? It is some part of the truth, some part of the lie, and everything is mixed up in an emotional message. Our materials should not be propaganda. Facts, accurate figures, context are our tools in the fight against russian propaganda”.

At the same time, Yuliya notes the participants’ activity and desire to learn:

“A lot is said about how journalists of national and international media work on the front line, and they are recognized with awards. And local media are rarely mentioned. But their courage and dedication to the profession are impressive, and it inspires me to work”.

Advice for journalists based on the materials of the mentoring sessions:

Content:

• Stories of people, particularly children, evoke the greatest emotional response from the international audience. Work with such stories, because each of them is a brick in the evidence base that russia is committing genocidal acts against Ukraine.
• Do not make “hot” news about children. Such stories require time, a safe environment, parental permission, and the child’s consent.
• Do not forget about the information component, the so-called Five Ws principle (Who, What, When, Where, Why).
• Remember facts and figures, provide general data and statistics.
• Treat your hero with respect. The story will not leave the reader indifferent if you yourself are not indifferent to it.

Digitization

• Store information on both cloud services and physical media.
• Create several Gmail accounts – one main account for work, and another backup account that is not related to you personally.
• Use browsers that offer improved privacy settings, such as LibreWolf and Brave.
• Digitize editorial archives: This is relevant both due to shell attacks and the relocation of newsrooms. It also increases internet traffic.
• Take care of security by avoiding threats: install an antivirus, avoid using public Wi-Fi, change passwords regularly, and do not reuse passwords for different services. Enable two-factor authentication for added security.

Media literacy

• Be aware of the current information state of “apathy towards reality”. People are so desperate that they subconsciously look for someone they can trust.
• Check quotes even from well-known authorities and the real expertise of experts. Reliability is more important than the speed of information.
• Use facts, not slogans: propaganda appeals to emotional slogans, and a journalist must work with numbers, documents, and verified testimonies.
• Do not become like the enemy: avoid hate speech and dehumanization, even in materials about war.
• Use fact-checking tools, including the following services: Google Reverse Search; TinEye.com; FotoForensics.com.

The project is funded by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine within the framework of the Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme.