“Meeting a Ukrainian journalist puts everything in its place,” says Danish media consultant Jesper Nykjær Knudsen

Jesper Nykjær Knudsen, communications and analytics consultant for business association Danske Medier, shared his impressions of meeting the President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) in Copenhagen.

“This is Sergiy Tomilenko. He is the President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, and I met with him to talk about how to manage the media in a war zone. And how the Ukrainian Media Fund, of which Danske Medier is a part, can help ensure that independent journalism continues to exist in a war-torn country,” wrote Mr. Jesper Nykjær Knudsen.

According to him, “the Ukrainian war has been going on for so long that we have almost become accustomed to it.” But, he adds, “for Ukrainians it is still an intrusive, bloody reality every day.”

He reminds the Danes of the realities of Ukrainian media. Suppose you publish media in a front-line zone. In that case, the basic condition is that you don’t know whether there will be electricity at all for the editorial office to work… There are editors of small local newspapers who put on helmets and bulletproof vests and deliver the daily circulation to kiosks in the villages.

“It is they whom Sergiy Tomilenko helps every day. Meeting such a person really puts everything in its place,” concludes the Danish colleague.

NUJU Information Service