THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Dear colleagues! Dear journalist community,
The second year of the full-scale war is coming to an end. A year of difficult challenges and painful losses. Another year of our sustainability. Our faith in victory and joint work for it.
We were united and it helped us hold on and support the others. The key priority of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) remained unchanged — quick and direct assistance to colleagues who are currently in the most difficult situation and maximum involvement of international partners’ resources to support journalists and journalism in Ukraine, engulfed in the flames of war.
And above all, support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
The large fund-raising campaign, which this year was initiated by the NUJU, uniting the journalistic community, made it possible to provide a company of snipers in Donbas with a minibus and military journalists of the Soledar group with a car. And the professional equipment for front-line journalists, which the Union transferred to the front lines, will help to better and more fully record the war crimes of the ruscists [russian soldiers] and the heroic deeds of our soldiers.
The Journalists’ Solidarity Centers (JSC), which were opened in Ukraine by the Union with the support of the International and European Federations of Journalists and UNESCO in the first months of the great war, became a kind of hub to support journalists in the performance of their professional duties on the front lines, including in areas that were subjected to russian missile attacks. In addition, the JSCs offer security training and psychosocial support for media workers affected by russian aggression. It is important that on the eve of the New Year 2024, the third front-line JSC was already operational – in the indomitable Kharkiv. Two other front-line JSCs are successfully working in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, and now, with an updated work strategy, they are successfully adapting to the priority of supporting Ukrainian and foreign journalists in the front-line regions and reviving mass media activities in these territories.
More than thirty local newspapers in the front-line and de-occupied territories have resumed work thanks to the support provided by the Union thanks to international partners. Courageous colleagues who work every day in conditions of constant shelling and power outages, in close proximity to the war zone or borders with aggressor states, perform an extremely important mission that cannot be overestimated: their information, without exaggeration, saves lives. And it is also an important marker of Ukrainian information presence in strategically important regions. The Ukrainian flag and a fresh Ukrainian newspaper are side by side on the bloodied, wounded, but unconquered land of a free country, on the information front line of the Ukrainian state.
Ahead, we have a difficult path, but together, we have proven that journalistic unity, cohesion, and mutual support are the keys to future victories. A journalist’s word, a journalist’s position, and journalistic solidarity are stronger than shelling and blackouts. Light will overcome darkness, and good will overcome evil! Ukraine stands firm, and together, we will write more than one page in the annals of future victories. And we will sacredly preserve the memory of our colleagues whose lives were taken by the war and of the soldiers, thanks to whose heroism we are now able to address the entire journalistic community in Ukrainian from the capital of independent Ukraine:
Happy New 2024, dear colleagues! I wish you a victorious mood, faith, and perseverance. We are on the side of light, and victory will be ours. Journalists are important!
Eternal memory to Ukrainian heroes!
Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Sergiy Tomilenko,
President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine
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