THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Ukrainian journalists and media organizations who signed the open appeal titled Media Recovery Is an Integral Part of Ukraine‘s Recovery call to include the issue of support and restoration of local media in Ukraine in the program of the Ukraine Recovery Conference to be held in Berlin on June 11-12, 2024.
So far, the appeal has been supported by about 130 signatories, including the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).
“Resources from many countries and donors are attracted for in Ukraine’s recovery programs, however, the respective programs do not include the media themselves,” notes the appeal. “International donors mostly consider the media as a tool through which it is possible to convey information about reconstruction, and not as a sector that itself urgently needs help. If this dangerous trend continues, regional media will be in danger of disappearing in a few years.”
The NUJU constantly emphasizes the importance of preserving local media. In particular, the round table called Sustainable support for Ukrainian media: Why is it important during the war?, held by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), NUJU, and the International Training Program in Brussels on June 12, is devoted to this topic. This event took place in the development of the initiative of the Annual Meeting of the EFJ, which in May of this year adopted an appeal in which it was noted that the restoration of the media should be a part of all programs for the restoration of Ukraine. The First Secretary of the NUJU, Lina Kushch, took part in the round table in Brussels.
National journalistic associations of Europe emphasize the importance of supporting Ukrainian local media, which are forced to work in conditions of constant danger, the importance of supporting journalists whose newsrooms and homes are under constant shelling, and the fact that publications are forced to shut down not only due to the above dangers but also because of the economic crisis caused by the war.
In particular, the President of the Danish Association of Journalists, Tine Johansen, and her deputy, Allan Boye Thulstrup, during a recent meeting with the President of the NUJU, Sergiy Tomilenko, expressed their warm support for the EFJ‘s call for the importance of restoring local media in Ukraine.
“We welcome the decision to make the Mykolayiv Region a subordinate region of our country. Denmark is creating programs to support and rebuild this region,” Tine Johansen noted. “We understand and support the position of the NUJU, which emphasizes the importance of restoring local media. In the near future, we will also discuss this topic with representatives of the Danish government in order to include media support in the revitalization program of the Mykolayiv Region.”
In turn, Sergiy Tomilenko spoke about the support provided by the NUJU to journalists from the Mykolayiv Region. In particular, contributing to the revival of the media in the front-line and de-occupied regions, the NUJU, with the support of international partners, financed the publication of the first issues of the newspapers Visti Snihurivshchyny (November 2022) and Vechirnii Mykolayiv (May 2024).
The Danish Association of Journalists has been actively supporting efforts to help Ukrainian journalists since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. In particular, she made a significant contribution to the Safety Fund of the International Federation of Journalists, which finances the NUJU Journalists’ Solidarity Center network. At the end of 2023, the Danish Association provided monetary aid and an emergency aid fund to journalists who suffered as a result of russian aggression, from which the NUJU provides assistance to media workers in emergency situations.
During the meeting, NUJU President Sergiy Tomilenko thanked his Danish friends for their great and sincere support and presented them with commemorative souvenirs – T-shirts with the inscription Ukraine – The Capital Of Great People. Tine Johansen and Allan Boye Thulstrup emphasized that they would be proud of these gifts. On the second day of the EFJ Annual Meeting, they wore these T-shirts in solidarity with Ukrainian journalists.
NUJU Information Service
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