THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
“In difficult times for the country, we all realize the exceptional importance of the role of the media in objective informing society and the world about the events related to the war that Moscow started… Standing in defense of democracy and freedom has been and remains our main professional duty.”
These are the words from the appeal to Ukrainian journalists “We are soldiers of truth,” which was adopted four years ago, on the morning of February 24, 2022, by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).
“These words have not lost their power even today,” emphasizes the NUJU President Sergiy Tomilenko. “Four years of full-scale war for journalists are four years of work under conditions of constant threat to life and health, daily choice between one’s own safety and duty to society and the truth.”
During this time, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the occupiers have killed at least 144 media workers. Among them are 21 journalists who were killed while performing their professional duties. Ten became victims as civilians. More than a hundred were killed defending Ukraine in the ranks of the Defense Forces. We remember each one.
But even those who survived paid a heavy price. Dozens of journalists were injured. Many lost their newsrooms, destroyed by shelling or forced to stop working due to the occupation. Thousands of media workers became internally displaced – they left their homes, hometowns, and familiar lives. The economic crisis caused by the war led to the closure of more than a third of Ukrainian media outlets – the voices that gave people information about their environment and communities fell silent.
But some things tell us better than any statistics about what journalistic identity means to our community.
Mariupol journalist Alina Komarova, among her most valuable belongings, took out of the occupied city her membership card of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Today, this document has become an exhibit at the War Museum in Kyiv.
Another colleague, journalist-border guard Svitlana Kelyp, who from the first hours of the invasion held the defense in Mariupol as part of the State Border Guard Service’s maritime guard detachment, while leaving the besieged city through 16 enemy checkpoints, also took her NUJU membership card. “When in Zaporizhzhia I finally saw the Zaporizhzhia newspaper on the table and picked it up, it was like an electric shock,” she recalls. “How important is this printed publication that you can pick up?” Journalist duties and journalistic affiliation are not just a line in a document. For Svitlana, as for thousands of our colleagues, this is something worth holding on to.
Despite all this, Ukrainian journalism did not stop.
In the most difficult moments, the international journalistic community was by our side. Support was provided by the International Federation of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, UNESCO, Reporters Without Borders, the International Press Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and national journalist organizations from around the world. This solidarity is not just a word. It was and is real help: financial support for newsrooms, protection of wounded and displaced colleagues, legal assistance, security training, statements in defense of press freedom, and the safety of journalists in Ukraine. We are sincerely grateful for this support and appreciate it.
Four years are also four years of journalistic solidarity within Ukraine itself: between newsrooms, between large and small media, between metropolitan and regional publications. This unity helped us to survive.
Today, on the fourth anniversary of the beginning of full-scale russian aggression, the NUJU bows to the memory of our fallen colleagues. Thinking of the wounded and displaced. And he speaks on behalf of all those who continue to go “into the field” every day, sit behind a microphone or keyboard: we have fulfilled, are fulfilling, and will fulfill our professional duty to provide society with truthful information.
Journalists Are Important!
Glory to Ukraine!
NUJU Information Service
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