How Lviv JSC helps media workers: a meeting with students

How to work in wartime and what professional skills future journalists need to develop in order to become professionals; the peculiarities of presenting information; russian propaganda that the aggressor country is trying to spread abroad and in our territory; and how to recognize false information and counter russian narratives were the issues first-year students from the Television Journalism And Media Communication faculty of the Separate unit of Lviv branch of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts learned while visiting the Lviv Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC) of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).

Nataliya Voitovych, the coordinator of the Center, spoke about the work, its main tasks, and the priority directions of the work of the JSC. She drew attention to the fact that with the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the JSCs began to actively help journalists who suffered from the war and were forced to leave their homes. The Centers have become a kind of refuge for journalists, where they can work quietly and communicate with colleagues.

“As future journalists, you should be aware of the importance and responsibility of our profession. Journalists are destined to tell the truth, resist enemy propaganda, and be united today more than ever. We have to support each other and help in such difficult times,” said Nataliya Voitovych.

Besides, the meeting participants discussed the importance of print media in the de-occupied territories, in particular the Kherson newspaper Novyi Den.

Future media workers also learned about the initiatives organized by the Center. One of them is the so-called Solidarity Card. On November 2, the whole world celebrated the day of ending impunity for crimes against journalists. On this occasion, student journalists of Lviv University wrote letters to their colleagues staying in russian captivity. The action once again demonstrated that Ukrainian journalists remember all their colleagues and are sincerely waiting for their return home.

Call Lviv JSC at 097 907 9702 (Nataliya Voitovych, the Lviv JSC coordinator). The Center’s address is 5 Solomiyi Krushelnytskoyi Street.

ABOUT JSC

The Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is an initiative of the NUJU implemented with the support of the International and European Federations of Journalists and UNESCO. The initiative is designated to help media representatives working in Ukraine during the war. The Centers operate in Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro and provide journalists with organizational, technical, legal, psychological, and other types of assistance.

ABOUT UNESCO

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It contributes to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication, and information. UNESCO promotes knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas to accelerate mutual understanding. It is the coordinator of the UN Action Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which aims to create a free and safe environment for journalists and media workers, thus strengthening peace, democracy, and sustainable development worldwide. UNESCO is working closely with its partner organizations in Ukraine to provide support to journalists on the ground.

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this digest do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this digest and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit to the organization.

Alina Shtempel