Happy Journalist’s Day!

We celebrate the second Journalist’s Day with you in an utterly non-festive atmosphere. The brutal war unleashed by the Russian invaders made all of us war correspondents, and whatever we write or talk about today is about the war.

Since the large-scale Russian aggression began, over 60 media workers have been killed. They could have continued covering important, helpful, and interesting information to their audience. Fourteen of them were killed while performing their professional duties. We bow our heads to their memory.

The war brought to the Ukrainian media space destruction of newsrooms, forced relocation of hundreds of journalists, illegal imprisonment, and torture of our colleagues in the occupied territories. We remember this and will insist that the Russian criminal regime, Russian criminal soldiers, and Russian criminal propagandists, who incited and are inciting hatred against Ukrainians, appear before the court and receive decent retribution.

We are proud of our colleagues who continue to remain in the profession despite the danger of the loss of their homes and the lack of funds to provide for themselves and their families. We are proud of those who, in addition to journalistic work, also undertake volunteer work. And we are incredibly proud of our colleagues who, having put down their pen for the time being, took up arms to defend the Motherland.

From the first day of the war, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) has been doing everything possible to provide the maximum possible assistance to media workers who find themselves in trouble, who have no means of livelihood, who lack knowledge and skills in the shocking conditions of war, who go on dangerous missions to the front line. Attracting funds, technical support from international partners, knowledge, and experience of experienced colleagues, we try to add strength and knowledge to every journalist who gathers and covers important and helpful information for their audience, which often saves people’s lives.

With the assistance of the NUJU, the publishing of 26 newspapers in the de-occupied and front-line territories was restored. Supporting such publications is a priority for our Union because, in the conditions of approaching the front, mobile communication and the Internet are not stable, so the newspaper often becomes the only opportunity to convey accurate, unbiased information to people. We deeply respect journalists working in front-line media and promise to do everything we can to support them in the future.

We are convinced that journalists are important!

I sincerely congratulate you, dear colleagues, on the professional holiday, Journalist’s Day!

Glory to Ukraine!

Sergiy Tomilenko, NUJU President