THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Another piece of good news regarding Zaporizhzhia’s relocated newspapers appeared on the eve of Easter. Thanks to the friendly support of German colleagues from the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) trade union of journalists, six local media outlets received assistance, which, despite everything, are holding on to front-line cities and villages in Ukraine every day.
“Last year, I had the honor of speaking at the DJV Congress in Munich,” says the President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), Sergiy Tomilenko. “I remember that moment – I am standing in front of European colleagues, holding a copy of the Holos Huliaipillia newspaper from the Zaporizhzhia Region in my hands, and I am talking about our journalists. About people who work under shelling, often without electricity, in constant anxiety – but continue to be the voice of their communities, publish newspapers, and report the truth. This story did not leave German colleagues indifferent – they announced a fundraising campaign to support Ukrainian regional journalists.”
Today, with great gratitude, I announce that this gesture of solidarity from friends has been translated into concrete assistance.
Thanks to donations from German journalists, we have supported the following media outlets:
- Holos Huliaipillia (Zaporizhzhia Region) – editor Tetiana Velyka;
- Obrii Iziumshchyny (Kharkiv region) – editor Kostiantyn Hryhorenko;
- Zoria (Lyman, Donetsk region) – editor Oleksandr Pasichnyk;
- Novyi Den (Kherson) – editor Anatolii Zhupyna;
- Mykolayivski Novyny – Anatolii Bilonozhko;
- Vechirnii Mykolayiv – editor Olena Ivashko.
This assistance is very important for journalists of front-line media because it shows that you are not alone, your work matters, and you are seen and appreciated. For tired but indomitable people, such support is like a ray of light. And it is symbolic that this help has arrived just now, on the eve of Easter – the holiday of the victory of life over death, light over darkness. I would like to personally thank Mika Beuster, Harald Stocker, Andrea Roth, Maria Goblirsch and everyone who joined this solidarity campaign.
The editor of the Holos Huliaipillia newspaper, Tetiana Velyka, also expressed her sincere gratitude for the support:
“We sincerely thank Sergiy Tomilenko for his powerful voice among European colleagues. This is so important and valuable for us at a time when we sometimes give up. Many thanks also to our benefactors for their support in such a difficult time for journalists.
Journalists are important!
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.
Call the Zaporizhzhia JSC at 096 277 5352 (Nataliya Kuzmenko and Valentyna Manzhura, coordinators of the Zaporizhzhia JSC). The Center’s address is 15 Sobornyi Avenue.
Nataliya Vadymova
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