THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
February 24 marked two years since the war in Ukraine began. The President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), Sergiy Tomilenko, reminds international partners of the urgent need to continue supporting Ukraine and Ukrainian journalists in the ongoing war despite the fact that it is disappearing from the headlines of the world media.
In his interview for the website of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Sergiy Tomilenko, the President of the NUJU, talks about two years of daily work and constant determination to support journalists and media workers on the ground and about the help of such international partners as the IFJ, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and UNESCO.
– It will soon be two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is still raging despite disappearing from many international headlines. What is the situation on the ground, and how do you feel?
– Unfortunately, that full-scale war, which in the first days of February 2022 seemed like a nightmare that should end in a few days or weeks, has been going on for two years. We do not see any obvious close prospects for its end despite the fact that the Ukrainian army heroically repels all Russian attacks. In these conditions, indeed, it is difficult for the world to maintain the focus of attention on this war for a long time. Some talk about war fatigue, others say that media audiences want to consume more upbeat news…
At the same time, Ukrainian journalists, like the rest of Ukrainians, cannot close their eyes to what is happening, change the subject, or turn away from the truth of the war because that would mean coming to terms with aggression and losing. Therefore, Ukraine continues to fight, and Ukrainian journalists continue to fulfill their professional duties. During the war, they risked their lives and hardened their professionalism. Hundreds of national and local media journalists have restructured their work and learned how to quickly cover emergencies related to Russian shelling, victims, and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Of course, the most difficult security situation is in the regions bordering the front and the Russian border. But dozens and hundreds of journalists still live and work in these regions; making incredible efforts, they ensure the provision of reliable information to both millions of Ukrainians and an international audience.
I feel incredibly proud that the absolute majority of Ukrainian journalists, having a sense of professional duty and responsibility to the audience, make efforts to preserve their media – despite shelling, destruction, and the economic crisis caused by the war. In the temporarily occupied territories, only a few media workers went to cooperate with the occupiers. Instead, hundreds of our colleagues, at great risk to their lives, refused to be local propagandists of the occupation regime; most of them, fortunately, were able to leave the occupied territories.
– What are the most pressing needs for journalists in Ukraine two years after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine?
– The most urgent need of journalists and the media after two years of war is the need for additional safety equipment – bulletproof vests, helmets, and tactical first-aid kits. The NUJU and our partners try to administer the free rental of such equipment, but it wears out over time.
Besides, we receive additional requests from journalists for psychological support because in the conditions of war, due to constant psychological pressure, emotional fatigue and burnout quickly set in. People lack the skills to relieve this pressure. All this happens despite the fact that during the war, journalists pay more attention to their work than usual; on the other hand, there is often no time left for recovery.
The war led to the destruction of the economy and, therefore, the advertising market, which has traditionally been a source of income for the media. Newsrooms lack financial resources, which leads to the mass shutdown of publications. There is a lack of technical equipment, which often breaks down as a result of moving, shelling, and intensive exploitation, and it cannot always be repaired. The most affected by all this are local publications, which worked brilliantly in the first months after the invasion. Now, left without the usual sources of livelihood and having used the emergency support of financial donors, have to look for long-term grant assistance. Unfortunately, internal efforts to support the Ukrainian media market in Ukraine are currently not enough.
– What has your Union been doing to help its members? Please provide concrete examples.
– In the conditions of war, the NUJU provides the absolute majority of services not only to our members, but also to media workers and newsrooms in general. It is about safety and emergency first aid training, emergency grants to colleagues who are in trouble (injured, lost housing or property), and rental of safety equipment. At the same time, we are happy when media workers, having recovered from emergencies and received support from the Union, decide to join the ranks of the NUJU.
During the war, we identified assistance to the regional branches of our Union as a priority, including those that, before the war, operated in the territories that are now fully or partially occupied by Russia, in particular, the Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia Regions, as well as Crimea, which has been under occupation for almost 11 years. There, the activity of our hubs cannot be carried out either at all or to an adequate extent. We provide support for journalists from these regions, help build partnerships with other regional organizations, obtain and renew trade Union membership cards, and develop a program of access to education services. We recommend receiving international financial support, and in the event of further activity of the media, we contribute to its economic stability.
– The seventh Solidarity Center for Journalists, launched by NUJU with IFJ, EFJ, and UNESCO support, opened in December in Kharkiv. Can you explain why the network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is crucial for journalists?
– The NUJU is grateful to our largest international partners, the International and European Federations of Journalists, and the UNESCO headquarters for supporting our initiative to create the network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers in April 2022.
It is a network of five small offices – in Lviv (with a presence in Chernivtsi), Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and Kharkiv, as well as the headquarters in Kyiv. This is a variant of the “hotline” for providing the necessary services to help journalists who are in trouble or are overcoming extraordinary professional challenges while working in dangerous conditions.
The work of the Centers during the war became extremely accessible and effective for hundreds and thousands of Ukrainian media workers who, even in the first months of the war, made decisions for themselves about evacuation, whether or not to be in the profession, in journalism. We advise on evacuation and rescue from occupied and dangerous territories, provide immediate financial support and technical assistance, conduct safety and first aid training events, provide psychological and legal support, and mentor support in improving and modernizing the work of the media. In the front-line and de-occupied territories, where electricity and mobile communication are often absent, we managed to restore the printing of thirty newspapers, which often become the only channel of information for the local population.
With the assistance of the Journalists’ Solidarity Centers, many colleagues decided to stay in the profession. They dared to transform their editorial practice and restructure it in accordance with modern requirements. The evidence of that can be the following feedback:
“The Journalists’ Solidarity Center is actually a real hub for journalists. Here, not only do we communicate professionally, but we also have material support. In particular, I have the opportunity to wear a helmet and a bulletproof vest, thanks to the Center. They gave us a camera. This is not only protection for a journalist but also help in the restoration of our local newspapers,” – Svitlana Karpenko, the editor-in-chief of the restored newspaper, Trudova Slava, from Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia Region.
“After the occupation of Kherson, we stayed in the city for a whole month. It was not possible to publish the newspaper, but we continued to fill the site until the occupiers started hunting journalists, which forced us to leave. The support of colleagues from the Journalists’ Solidarity Centers helped a lot. Legal support helped to correctly record the criminal actions of the occupiers, and colleagues from the Center helped to find housing. Today, the Journalists’ Solidarity Center provides us with a workplace and gives us protective equipment when we go on business trips,” said the editor-in-chief of the Novy Den newspaper from Kherson, Anatolii Zhupyna.
“I repeatedly turned to the Journalists’ Solidarity Center for help. During the blackout, you can work on some topics; you can get a bulletproof vest and a first-aid kit for a business trip to the front-line territory. Such help and support is very important,” said Oleh Baturin, a journalist who survived captivity during the occupation of Kherson.
“Journalists in Kharkiv every day go to the sites of constant enemy artillery shelling of mostly civilian objects. The Journalists’ Solidarity Center in Kharkiv provides us with protective equipment and conducts security training. Effective cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also being established at the Center. Recently, journalists met with the Deputy Commander of Khortytsia for strategic communications, Serhii Cherevatyi, at a Journalists’ Solidarity Center. After the meeting, the communication between journalists and the military improved significantly, and they agreed on further systematic work,” said journalist and fixer Volodymyr Pavlov.
“At the Journalists’ Solidarity Center, I met colleagues who help journalists during wartime, when there is a threat to their work, and they suffer huge economic problems at their newsrooms,” Anna Del Freo, a member of the EFJ executive committee.
– How can Unions and the journalistic community help Ukrainian journalists?
– Thousands of Ukrainian journalists and hundreds of editors remain in the profession thanks to powerful international journalistic solidarity. Even in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, leaders of journalist unions from Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Norway, and other countries gave us technical and financial assistance, studied the needs, and quickly ensured a response. The stability of our network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is ensured primarily thanks to this great international support.
We highly appreciate the fact that we can organize services for journalists with international help and the fact that we have the opportunity to record the testimonies of journalists about Russia’s war crimes against freedom of speech that we can present these testimonies on international platforms. In particular, last year on World Press Freedom Day, I had the honor and opportunity to speak on the grounds of the UN General Assembly and UNESCO to talk about the courage of Ukrainian journalists, the revival of front-line publications, and to call for a tribunal against Russia for war crimes, including crimes against freedom of speech and journalists. Last year in Paris and Brussels, with the assistance of international colleagues, we held large photo exhibitions about the work of journalists during the war in Ukraine. These days, on the initiative of the Lithuanian Union of Journalists and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, such an exhibition is being presented in Vilnius. We expect that this year, our exhibition will be hosted in other European countries as well. This will contribute to new discussions about the importance of further support for Ukraine, Ukrainians, and Ukrainian journalists and about the importance of professional journalism at present.
– What message would you like to convey to affiliates and journalists on February 24?
– The key message is a big thanks for the support that we, Ukrainian journalists, have felt throughout these two years, as well as a big thanks to the media that send their journalists to Ukraine and to the freelance journalists who, through their materials, draw attention to the war in the Center of Europe, call for the adoption at the democratic level of decisions able contribute to the victory of Ukraine and the end of the war.
We thank you for your solidarity, declare our openness, and call for cooperation!
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