“Let’s not forget about the people who live in the front-line territories,” front-line cameraperson Dariya Zyrianova

In her speech at the roundtable titled Restoring and Ensuring Stability of Media in De-Occupied and Front-line Territories held at the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), assistant of the Zaporizhzhia Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC), front-line cameraperson of the national TV channel We – Ukraine, Dariya Zyrianova, talked about how they are fighting for the preservation of newspapers in front-line areas of the Zaporizhzhia Region.

Here is the text of her speech

“The Zaporizhzhia JSC is part of the family of JSCs established in different regions of Ukraine. We are doing an unrealistically great job in Zaporizhzhia, and we are happy when our fellow journalists thank us for our support and help and the safety training events organized for them.

Safety training events are especially timely for us journalists today as our media people work in very difficult conditions when all the economic problems of the media are superimposed by constant powerful enemy shelling. 60% of the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Region has been under occupation for almost two years; other areas and Zaporizhzhia itself are considered a front-line zone.

We constantly visit the front-line areas of the region on work trips, meet with local residents, and, in particular, our most extreme trips were to the cities of Orikhiv and Huliaipole. I was pleasantly surprised when people thanked us, journalists, for not forgetting them and talking about them.

These people live in almost destroyed houses or basements without water, electricity, without gas. And if there is no light, then there is almost no mobile Internet either. So, the only way to get information is to go to an invincibility point [a place equipped with a generator to provide people with communication and the possibility to charge their devices], watch the Unified Marathon on TV, or find out the news from people whose relatives or acquaintances called and told them about what was going on in Ukraine.

Most of the residents of the front-line towns and villages are elderly people, and it is difficult for them to go to an invincibility point to find out some information, especially when the unbreakable point is far from home. Due to the proximity of the hostilities zone, people do not have access to information and say that, most of all they wait for newspapers. Every newspaper they get their hands on is like a treasure for them. The newspaper is passed from hand to hand, read and reread, and information is discussed among themselves.

With the support of the NUJU and with the financial assistance of international institutions and UNESCO, the editors of the Orikhiv newspaper Trudova Slava and the newspaper Polohivski Visti, Svitlana Karpenko and Tetiana Velyka, were able to restore the publishing of their publications. It was a big breakthrough when, after a break of more than a year, in April 2023, their newspapers were printed and delivered to the residents of Orikhiv.

It must be said that now, residents of five communities of the former Orikhiv District have the chance to read the Trudova Slava newspaper. And these are 54 settlements that are mercilessly shelled by the enemy. That is why people appreciate a newspaper that brings them true information.

The newsroom of Orikhiv’s Trudova Slava was destroyed, and the issue of February 26, 2022, is still lying in that destroyed office of the newspaper. The issue was printed, but it could not be delivered to subscribers.

Currently, Svitlana Karpenko herself is trying to go with rescuers of the State Emergency Situations Service (SESS) to Orikhiv and to those communities that can be reached. She prefers to talk to residents personally to learn about their lives and what people would like to read about in the newspaper.

In October 2023, the relocated edition of Holos Huliaipillia also restored its republishing.

The problem in the Huliaipole Community lies in the fact that a part of the community is occupied, while the one controlled by Ukraine, including the Orikhiv Communities, is constantly under enemy fire. However, despite such difficult circumstances, people in the unoccupied territory subscribe to the Holos Huliaipillia newspaper. Ukrposhta employees deliver it to subscribers, and it is more than a newspaper for people; it is an opportunity to have information.

I want to say that we must not forget about the people who are in the front-line territories! There are a lot of them there, and they need reliable and truthful information to understand what is happening in Ukraine and the world.

And you know – our journalists, restoring their publications, are making incredible efforts to prevent fakes from spreading and provide our compatriots with quality information. But the media themselves also need support and help.

Today, thanks to the efforts of the NUJU and its JSCs, thanks to the great help of the international partners of the Union, we have such support. But it must be understood that the restored newspapers are still in danger of disappearing.

For their steady publishing, constant psychological, security, and technical financial support of our state is needed. In conditions where the path to victory can be long, it is very important to support regional and local publications. Unfortunately, they are the only source of information in large areas where other media do not work for a number of reasons.”

Olha Voitsekhivska, Journalist of Ukraine