State support for the family of deceased journalist is about dignity: where to find the money to pay

“The family of Victoria Roshchina, tortured by russia, will not receive any payments from the state. At least, for now, with the current Ukrainian legislation. And this is a fact,” with such alarming and even harsh words, the head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, began his message on Facebook, calling what is happening absurd.

We are talking about payments in the amount of UAH 302,800, which the family of Victoria Roshchina, who died in russian captivity, should have received.

According to Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, currently, neither this year’s budget nor the draft of such a document for 2026 contains the money promised to the journalist’s parents for payments.

“The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has officially confirmed that there are no funds provided for the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, which decided to pay the family of the deceased journalist. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance proposes to look for money in another program, the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine. This is a program for employees of critical infrastructure facilities. But not all media have a critical status,” Yaroslav Yurchyshyn noted.

The People’s Deputy drew attention to the fact that, in addition, the situation is complicated by the fact that Victoria generally worked as a freelancer. That is, even if there were funds, her family would still not be able to receive them.

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn noted that today journalists are not only our eyes in the combat zone. They collect evidence of crimes so that the aggressor country will sooner or later answer for what was done on our land.

So how can we find funds to support the deceased journalist? Yaroslav Yurchyshyn suggests doing this in this way:

“For example, government officials review approaches to budgeting and make changes to the distribution of the reserve fund. In fact, we are working on this right now. Then there will be an opportunity to finance the programs of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, so that every journalist, first of all the military correspondent, or his relatives can receive support from the state for which they risk their lives every day.”

The publication of the people’s deputy on the social network caused a wide discussion.

In particular, the head of the Women in Media non-governmental organization, a member of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, Liza Kuzmenko, noted: “The problem is not only the lack of specific funds in the budget — the problem is that the current mechanisms do not take into account the realities of military journalism at all. It is journalists, often without proper guarantees and security, who document russia’s crimes and perform work that directly affects international justice. And supporting Victoria’s family is not a “payment under the budget item”, it is a matter of justice and state responsibility. And it is good that today there are efforts aimed at ensuring that the decision of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting does not remain a declaration, but becomes a real mechanism for assistance. Obviously, changes are needed: a clear status and guarantees for journalists working in the combat zone; inclusion of freelancers in the state protection system; stable budget financing of such programs; a transparent mechanism for supporting the families of deceased media workers.”

“However, they somehow get the money for the telethon,” another commentator said.

As Yaroslav Yurchyshyn noted, the issue of these payments is primarily about dignity. “We must press,” he commented.

ADDENDUM. Some time ago, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn published the following message on Facebook: “The family of Victoria Roshchina will receive funds from the state in 2026. The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has found a mechanism and promises to do it. Thank you. I will check.”

Earlier, we reported that the decision to award state compensation to the family of journalist Victoria Roshchina, who died while performing her professional duties, was adopted by the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting by a majority vote.

As earlier reported, journalist Victoria Roshchina died in russian captivity on September 19, 2024.

NUJU Information Service