A unique rarity for Japanese friends of Ukrainian journalism

The delegation of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) presented a unique copy of the first issue of the Visti Snihurivshchyny newspaper to the Green Coop company in Fukuoka. This issue was published immediately after the liberation of the district from the russian occupiers in November 2022. Snihurivka was under occupation for eight long months.

This copy holds special significance, as it personifies the revival of the Ukrainian press in liberated and front-line territories, while also supporting 25 front-line local newspapers that were restored thanks to the contributions of Japanese benefactors, the NUJU, and the Journalist Initiative Foundation.

Three years ago, Japanese friends donated to support Ukrainian journalists. It was with these funds that our first program of assistance to local front-line newspapers began in September 2022, most of which fell silent after the full-scale invasion and may not recover at all.

The front-line press is often the only source of information, serving as the voice for tens of thousands of Ukrainians in Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Mykolayiv Regions.

At the Green Coop headquarters in Fukuoka, the Ukrainian delegation, consisting of the President of the NUJU, Sergiy Tomilenko, and well-known Zaporizhzhia journalists Svitlana Karpenko and Olha Vakalo, presented this newspaper rarity with an explanatory text in Japanese, a special award from the NUJU and the Journalist Initiative Foundation, as well as Ukrainian souvenirs to their Japanese friends.

At the same time, the NUJU delegation held a public lecture for the company’s employees and partners (almost 100 participants): they spoke about russian war crimes, the threat to the world from the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the work of Ukrainian journalists during the war, and the activities of the Centers of Journalist Solidarity. There was also a screening of the NUJU documentary “Pages of Hope,” which highlights the importance of the front-line newspaper Trudova Slava from the town of Orikhiv. Its editor, Svitlana Karpenko, sincerely thanked the Japanese benefactors; it was their funds that allowed us to restore the first issue of the newspaper in 2023, which now remains the only source of news for hundreds of residents of the Orikhiv Community in the Zaporizhzhia Region (5 km from the front).

“I personally thank my Japanese friends for their sincere support, which became the basis for the revival of front-line media in Ukraine. Back in 2022, our program to support journalists of the front-line press was the first, after which our international partners were able to deploy further support,” noted Sergiy Tomilenko. “I would like to emphasize separately: the friendship of the NUJU and the “Journalistic Initiative” foundation with the Japanese foundation Japan Offspring Fund (Saitama, Tokyo), headed by Jun’ichi Kowaka, has been going on for many years. It was thanks to Mr. Kowaka that Ukrainian journalists repeatedly received support, and the Japanese public learned the truth about the war and the challenges for our press.”

Three years ago, it was the Green Coop company that responded to the appeal of Ukrainian journalists and made an important donation. Then, thanks to these funds, it was possible to resume the publication of many local front-line newspapers. The NUJU delegation, comprising NUJU Secretary Serhii Shevchenko and Liudmyla Mekh, President of the Journalist Initiative Foundation, visited Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto in the summer of 2022. It was then that the first public “war” journalism lectures and meetings with the Japanese public took place, marking the beginning of our current activity in Japan.

Today, the Union continues this tradition — to tell Japanese society the truth about the war, thanks for the support, and strengthen solidarity between Ukrainian and Japanese citizens.

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The network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is an initiative of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, implemented in collaboration with the International and European Federations of Journalists and UNESCO, and with the support of the People of Japan. Our primary goal is to assist media professionals working in Ukraine during the war. The Centers are active in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk. The project is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to support the Safety of Journalists and Freedom of Expression in Ukraine.

Contact the Zaporizhzhia JSC 096 277 5352 (Nataliya Kuzmenko and Valentyna Manzhura, the coordinators of the Zaporizhzhia JSC). The Center’s address is 15 Sobornyi Avenue.

Zaporizhzhia JSC