THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
More than 200 delegates of the national congress of the Norwegian Union of Journalists held in Oslo on March 21-23 applauded the video dedicated to the testimony of Ukrainian journalists about Russia’s war crimes, which was prepared by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU). Norwegian colleagues admire the resilience of Ukrainian journalists who, at the risk of their lives, refuse to cooperate with the occupiers and, despite all the dangers, continue to do their work.
The Norwegian Union of Journalists was thanked for its leadership position in solidarity with Ukrainian journalists, in the fight against Russian propaganda and in supporting the boycott of Russian propagandists by the special guests of the congress “NUJU President Sergiy Tomilenko and Union’s First Secretary Lina Kushch.
The meeting with the leaders of NUJU took place in the format of a live interview conducted by the well-known Norwegian journalist Morten Jentoft.
“February 24, 2022, was a shock for Ukrainian journalists and changed their lives,” said Sergiy Tomilenko, speaking to his Norwegian colleagues. “Many journalists had to leave their newsrooms, their cities. But many of these colleagues continue to work remotely for their audience. And for the NUJU, one of the priorities has been the support of these media people, the support of local mass media. We help such media, especially in the front-line and de-occupied territories, to resume their work.”
Sergiy Tomilenko noted that the management and activists of the Union are glad and proud that with its support, it was possible to resume printing more than 20 Ukrainian local newspapers. Among them was the popular Kherson newspaper called Novyi Den.
“Currently, the residents of Kherson and the liberated districts of Kherson Region receive Novyi Den thanks to the efforts of local communities and volunteers. In this newspaper, journalist Oleh Baturin works, “one of the heroes of the footage prepared by the Union, especially for the congress of the Norwegian Union of Journalists. The occupiers kidnapped Oleh, subjected him to torture, and held him captive but did not get him to agree to cooperate. Today, together with his colleagues, he continues to develop Novyi Den,” added the NUJU President, showing a copy of the newspaper.
Lina Kushch, who was born and lived most of her life in Donetsk, told her Norwegian colleagues how the Russian occupation had a terrible roller-coaster ride over the fates of hundreds of thousands of Donetsk residents, breaking their usual lives, depriving them of their lives and jobs, killing people they knew and loved. At the same time, Russian occupiers call themselves the “liberators” of Donbas.”
“In the occupied territories, the Russians appropriated the brands of local newspapers trusted by the residents and began publishing under their names; however, this time, they were filled with Russian propaganda. The printing of all these publications is coordinated and controlled by a single center of the “Ministry of Information” of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. At the same time, journalists do not have any right to freedom of speech and action,” said Lina Kushch.
The leaders of NUJU emphasized that when creating a tribunal that should consider the crimes of the Putin regime, a separate section should be provided for Russian propagandists, who prepared the Russian people to support and approve a large-scale war against Ukraine.
“If the second stage of the war was tanks, bombs, and missiles, then the first stage was Russian propaganda,” Sergiy Tomilenko stressed.
When asked about the attitude towards those Russian journalists who “had to go abroad because they oppose the war,” the leaders of the NUJU answered that the real victims of the war were not them but the Ukrainian people.
“Help us, Ukrainians, to win, and after the victory, we will try to understand emigrant journalists from Russia. We did not receive any help from Russian journalists to stop the propaganda in helping those Ukrainian colleagues who were expelled from their homes and had to flee through the territory of Russia and European countries, who were arrested and taken to Russia. We did not receive any help from our Russian colleagues. Unfortunately…,” said Lina Kushch. “If Ukrainians, particularly Ukrainian journalists, want the victory of Ukraine, then Russian journalists, even opposition ones, sympathize with Russian soldiers who were poorly equipped to go to the front to kill Ukrainians. So today, we cannot sympathize with Russian journalists.”
Sergiy Tomilenko and Lina Kushch thanked the courageous Norwegian colleagues who regularly work in Ukraine, including on the front lines, keeping Ukrainian events in the focus of the Norwegian and European public, which allows Ukraine to feel powerful support in the fight against the Russian aggressor.
The Norwegian Union of Journalists “is one of those national European professional unions that have most actively demonstrated solidarity with NUJU and the Ukrainian journalistic community. Norwegians actively supported the collection of funds in support of Ukrainian colleagues, organized by the European Federation of Journalists, and independently provided assistance in the work of the NUJU Journalists’ Solidarity Centers network. In particular, the Norwegians purchased three Starlink terminals for the JSCs in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and Ivano-Frankivsk, a video projector for the Zaporizhzhia center, computer tablets for the centers in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, as well as financially and organizationally supported a number of measures to strengthen the safety of journalists.
The Norwegian Union of Journalists, in a constant dialogue with the journalist unions of other Scandinavian countries, harshly condemns the Union of Journalists of Russia for opening its branches in the occupied regions of Ukraine and Russian propagandists for inciting hatred towards the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state. The Norwegians have been reliable associates and helpers of the NUJU in the struggle to stop the membership of the Union of Journalists of Russia in the International Federation of Journalists, which the NUJU had called for since February 2022 and which became a reality on February 22, 2023.
During the stay of the NUJU leaders in Norway, negotiations were held on expanding cooperation with the leadership of the Norwegian Union of Journalists, the Norwegian Commission on Journalistic Ethics, scientists of the University of Oslo, and heads of Norwegian media companies.
Separate consultations were held with Randi Øgrey, the director general of the Norwegian Media Business Association (MBL), on coordinating efforts for economic support of Ukrainian mass media. The MBL Association is one of the founders of the UMF initiative, Ukrainian Media Fund, formed by Scandinavian media companies and organizations to support Ukrainian media experiencing a crisis due to the Russian war. One of the main partners of UMF is the NUJU; over the past year, dozens of journalists received equipment, protective equipment, and salary funding through the NUJU.
The issues of preventing Russia from violating the rights of Ukrainian journalists, supporting projects for the physical safety of media workers, and achieving economic stability of Ukrainian media were discussed during meetings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. In particular, Sergiy Tomilenko informed prominent Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs representatives about the Union’s initiative to organize systemic support for reviving local media in the de-occupied and front-line territories.
In general, the overarching theme of the meetings of the Ukrainian delegation in Norway was a call for systemic decisions on economic support for independent Ukrainian media and ensuring Ukrainians’ access to operational, truthful, and complete information.
NUJU information service
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