NUJU First Secretary Lina Kushch speaks at Brussels Press Club about challenges faced by Ukrainian journalists

Independent journalism in Ukraine plays a leading role and needs broader international support.

This was discussed by the participants in the meeting held at the Brussels Press Club on the initiative of the Ethical Journalism Network.

The discussion began with the speech of the First Secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), Lina Kushch, who participated online from the Kyiv Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC). She spoke about the challenges the Union has been working with in recent weeks: helping journalists in Kherson, holding radiation safety training for media workers in Zaporizhzhia, and restoring newspapers in the de-occupied and front-line territories.

“In the first hours after the explosion of the dam at the Kakhovka HEPP, the world media discussed only the versions of who did it: maybe Ukraine, maybe Russia. And only after the journalists risked their lives to report from Kherson, showed the evacuation of people, showed the flooded houses, then the world started talking about the humanitarian and ecological disaster,” Lina Kushch noted.

The president of the network, Aidan White, presented the report titled Ukraine Media: Defiance And Truth-Telling. The head of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, Andrii Kulikov; UNESCO project coordinator Adeline Hulin; European director of Reporters Without Borders, Zhanna Cavelier; human rights defender and writer Paul Martoz; and deputy director of the Global Forum for Media Development, Tom Law, spoke about the role of Ukrainian journalists.

“The courage of Ukrainian journalists and media is a source of inspiration for all of us,” said Aidan White. “They play a crucial role in revealing the truth and protecting the country. But they need more support.”

NUJU Information Service