NUJU leadership will represent journalists at Council of Europe platform

President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), Sergiy Tomilenko, NUJU First Secretary, Lina Kushch, and NUJU Secretary, Kostiantyn Hryhorenko, became members of the Steering Committee within the Protection Of Free Speech And Media Freedom In Ukraine project implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Ukraine.

“We will be the voice of real journalists and media at the Council of Europe platform!” says Sergiy Tomilenko.

During the first meeting of the Committee, he emphasized that its common priority should be strengthening the stability of Ukrainian media, especially in the de-occupied and front-line territories.

“Our colleagues are literally on the front line of the fight against Russian propaganda and information chaos, so we have to help them in every possible way,” stresses Sergiy Tomilenko.

In his opinion, since the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted a very complex and voluminous Law On Media, it is worth launching a broad educational work providing journalists and newsrooms with advisors, examples of document templates, clarifying the features of the protection of journalists’ rights under the new legislative conditions.

Journalists’ safety is a priority:

For us, an important tool for the protection of colleagues is the special Platform of the Council of Europe on the Safety of Journalists, which accumulates information about crimes against journalists. Serhiy Tomilenko emphasizes that it is worth seeking the appointment of persons responsible for responding to journalists’ appeals about violations of their rights in law enforcement agencies, such as the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Interior Affairs Ministry, the National Police, and the SBU. It is necessary to conduct regular public reports on the state of investigations of crimes against media persons. Particular attention should be paid to Russia’s war crimes against journalists and the media. We must strengthen the idea of a Putin tribunal for crimes against journalists.

Currently, the Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate of the Council of Europe has approved the first stage of the media project for Ukraine, which consists of three components:

Ensuring the compliance of Ukraine’s legislation on mass media, freedom of speech, and access to information with European standards.
Effective implementation of the legal framework regulating the protection of journalists, public broadcasting, and regulatory bodies in accordance with European standards.
Effective communication strategies that regulate balanced media coverage and prevent the emergence of information chaos.

Words of support for Ukrainians and Ukrainian journalists came from the head of the Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate of the Council of Europe, Patrick Penninckx, and his colleague/project program manager in Strasbourg, Shahin Abbasov. The participants in the meeting sincerely congratulated the Ukrainian team of the Office of the Council of Europe, which implements the project, Leila Zhdanova and Olena Demchenko.

The Steering Committee of the Council of Europe Project itself united the following institutions: the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Humanitarian and Information Policy, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine, the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Committee of Ukraine, the National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, the Association of Rights Owners and Content Providers of Ukraine, and the Independent Media Council.