“Our goal is to convey that russia and russian war criminals have not yet been punished” – Lina Kushch in Zaporizhzhia

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) continues presenting the Executed Free Speech project. On September 5, a roundtable discussion was held at the Zaporizhzhia Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC), where Lina Kushch, the First Secretary of the NUJU, presented several video works, Stories of Life and Work in Wartime. The event was attended by displaced journalists, local media professionals, and students of the Faculty of Journalism of Zaporizhzhia National University.

Before the start, Lina Kushch looked at a photo exhibition dedicated to the work of Zaporizhzhia special forces and press officers on the front line and in the occupied territories, which opened in the Zaporizhzhia press center Journalist.

Thanks to journalists, the world learns about the war crimes committed by the enemy, including the ones against the journalists themselves. Media workers often have to obtain information under enemy fire. Unfortunately, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 64 journalists have been killed, Lina Kushch recalled.

“The project’s main goal is to convey the message to the world about the need to punish russian war criminals,” she emphasized. “The russian military does not pay attention to the inscription Press; they shoot at journalists, destroy the premises of newsrooms and technical equipment, deprive media workers of their jobs, and the residents of towns and villages of the information they need.”

According to Lina Kushch, a total of 20 newsrooms have been destroyed or captured by the enemy in the temporarily occupied territories in the Zaporizhzhia Region. Many journalists managed to move to relatively safe places, but some, in particular, Iryna Dubchenko, who was in the Rozivka District, Zaporizhzhia Region, and Mykola Tyshakov from Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Region, had to experience the horrors of russian captivity. The fate of Melitopol journalist Iryna Levchenko is still unknown. The NUJU aims to help injured journalists, minimize the damage caused to the Ukrainian media, as well as protect freedom of speech and media activity in all forms and manifestations provided for by international law and the Constitution of Ukraine, the President of the NUJU, Sergiy Tomilenko, stated in the introduction of the Executed Free Speech brochure.

The project contains 120 stories about the fates of Ukrainian media workers at the beginning of the war; there are also stories from Zaporizhzhia Region residents: Svitlana Zalizetska from Melitopol, Vitalii Holoda from Tokmak, and Svitlana Karpenko from Orikhiv.

Svitlana Karpenko, the editor-in-chief of the Trudova Slava newspaper, recalled the first days of the war and her evacuation from Orikhiv. Thanks to the assistance of the NUJU and the tireless work of a small newspaper team, publishing has been resumed. Residents of all communities of the Orikhiv district now receive it.

“People need the newspaper; they are waiting for it,” said Svitlana. “And this inspires us for further work. This week, the sixth issue of the newspaper saw the light.”

Lina Kushch presented Svitlana Karpenko with the Cross of Civic Merit, a sign of national honor.

Zaporizhzhia journalist Olha Bohlevska took part in the work on the project titled Stories of Life and Work in Wartime. She prepared 16 interviews with colleagues who, risking their lives, continue to work in the front-line territories, as well as with those who, with great difficulty, got out of cities captured by the enemy. It was tough psychologically,” Olha said.

Alla Shamrai, a journalist from Enerhodar, Viktoriya Horbatko, a Berdiansk journalist, and Ivan Kushnirenko, a journalist and writer from Huliaipole, found refuge in the city of Zaporizhzhia. Each of them has their own difficult story they shared with their colleagues. They shared with those present their stories about the fate of their colleagues in the now-occupied territories.

After discussing the brochure and watching some video stories, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional organization of the NUJU, Nataliya Kuzmenko, and the NUJU First Secretary thanked all the media and emphasized further publishing the stories of Ukrainian journalists until all russian war criminals are punished.

The meeting took place within the framework of the project titled Drawing Attention Of Ukrainian And International Audience To Serious Violations Of Human Rights And Crimes Against Journalists And Mass Media Committed By Russian Federation, implemented by the NUJU with the financial support of the Swedish non-profit organization, Civil Rights Defenders.

Nina Derkach, Nataliya Vadymova, photo by Serhii Bizhko