THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Last Friday, Canadian independent journalist and publisher Scott Douglas Jacobsen visited Dnipro. During his stay in the city, he visited the Dnipro Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC) of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), met with journalists, and learned about their work in wartime.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the founder and editor-in-chief of the In-Sight: Interviews project, the author of numerous publications for international platforms. He is a member of Reporters Without Borders and regularly records interviews with Ukrainian experts, diplomats, and public figures for a global audience.
This is not the journalist’s first time in Ukraine: he previously visited the Lviv JSC, and in Kyiv he recorded an interview with the President of the NUJU, Sergiy Tomilenko.
During his visit to Dnipro, Scott Douglas Jacobsen sought to see with his own eyes how Ukrainian journalists work in conditions of full-scale war and to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by the media.
The coordinator of the Dnipro JSC, Nataliya Nazarova, spoke about the main areas of the Center’s work: supporting journalists affected by the war, assisting in the relocation of newsrooms, providing emergency assistance, organizing training and professional development.
“For all four years, we have been working in hotline mode – constantly in touch with journalists, supporting colleagues in difficult war conditions. At the same time, the security situation in the Dnipropetrovsk Region is deteriorating, and journalists are increasingly suffering from enemy attacks,” Nataliya Nazarova noted in a conversation with her foreign colleague. “We are strengthening the security sector: we conduct trainings, provide free rental of protective equipment, and we also have an anti-drone device Chuika, which journalists can use during their trips to frontline areas.”
Special attention during the meeting was paid to the topic of mental health of journalists. The Center systematically conducts training sessions on psychological resilience aimed at overcoming emotional burnout and working with traumatic experiences. Scott Douglas Jacobsen joined one of such sessions, which gave him the opportunity to see this work from the inside.
During the visit, the Canadian journalist showed special interest in communicating with media workers whose homes were damaged or destroyed as a result of russian attacks.
In particular, he spoke with Dnipro TV journalist Iryna Stryzhka, whose house was destroyed a year ago as a result of a drone attack.
The conversation took place in a shelter, since at that time a massive attack on the central part of the city by kamikaze drones was underway.
According to the participants of the meeting, such stories are typical for Ukrainian journalists in front-line regions and testify to the difficult conditions in which they work.
With the representative of the academic community, professor of the marketing department of Dnipro Polytechnic National Technical University Mariya Butyrina, they talked about the role of media diplomacy and the importance of international journalism in conveying the truth about the war in Ukraine to a global audience.
The Center notes the importance of such visits for the development of professional dialogue and strengthening international solidarity of journalists.
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 Dnipro JSC at 050 919 8479 (Nataliya Nazarova, the coordinator of the Dnipro JSC).
Dnipro JSC
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