THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
On the eve of the Armed Forces Day of Ukraine, in the warm atmosphere of the Zaporizhzhia Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC) of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), a meeting was held with our journalist colleagues who defended Ukraine, are currently serving or have already resigned from the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Center‘s coordinators, Nataliya Kuzmenko and Valentyna Manzhura, congratulated the dear guests, Volodymyr Moskalenko, Serhii Skibchyk, Andrii Andriyenko, Oleksandr Veriovkin, on their professional holiday.
“One of the important tasks for the Center during the war was to assist mobilized journalists and media workers who are currently at the front. Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine play a decisive role in defending the country. The full-scale enemy offensive forced many Zaporizhzhia journalists to take up arms. Among them are Larysa Mala, Bohdan and Taras Vasylenkos, Herman Dubinin, Vitalii Holod, Taras Bilka, Yakiv Noskov, Viktor Sosnytskyi, Oleksandra Davydenko and many others. All of them are presented at the updated photo exhibition at the Center,” noted the co-coordinator of the Center, the executive secretary of the Zaporizhzhia regional organization of the NUJU, Valentyna Manzhura.
The main characters of the photo exhibition are Zaporizhzhia soldier-journalists who are currently defending their native land from the enemy in the ranks of the Ukrainian army. Twenty-three of them are our hero colleagues, whose photos were presented at the photo exhibition called Zaporizhzhia Journalists at War. The exhibition features portraits of soldier journalists and war reporter-journalists who work on the front line and in front-line territories, covering historical events located nearby. Each media person has their contribution to our common victory, and often, it has a very high price – life. Unfortunately, among the 103 dead soldiers-journalists, two Zaporizhzhia media workers – Oleh Yakunin and Oleh Shemchuk – were present. The media workers honored the memory of the dead with a minute of silence.
Colleagues-servicemen and veterans were invited to the conversation. They discussed, in particular, informational stability and the importance of journalism in this difficult time.
Volodymyr Moskalenko has significant experience in journalism, worked on television, in the newspaper MIG, began his military career with the ATO and continued for the second time from the first days of the large-scale invasion. Currently, he is a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, works in the Department of Veterans’ Policy of the ZOVA, and helps former servicemen and their families solve problems. His working days also consist of difficult moments: “…Yesterday, I participated in the burial of a soldier who died from wounds – Sviatoslav Naumichiev, the commander of the 110th Brigade, son of the former mayor of Enerhodar. Today is a new farewell ceremony… Both the residents of Zaporizhzhia and the whole country should know and remember who we live thanks to….”
The press officer of the 65th brigade / former head of the Volodymyretskyi Visnyk newspaper, Serhii Skibchik, who has over 20 years of journalistic experience, considers the information front in the war to be one of the most important.
The famous photojournalist Andrii Andriyenko, whose works were published by The Washington Post, and The Guardian, is also serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine today. He noted that it is good when the army uses a person’s abilities for their intended purpose: an IT specialist can serve in cyber troops, someone can be a driver, a repairman…
Call the Zaporizhzhia JSC at 096 277 5352 (Nataliya Kuzmenko and Valentyna Manzhura, the Zaporizhzhia JSC coordinators). The Center is located at 152 Sobornyi Avenue.
ABOUT JSC
The Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is an initiative of the NUJU implemented with the support of the International and European Federations of Journalists and UNESCO. The initiative is designated to help media representatives working in Ukraine during the war. The Centers operate in Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro and provide journalists with organizational, technical, legal, psychological, and other types of assistance.
ABOUT UNESCO
UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It contributes to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication, and information. UNESCO promotes knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas to accelerate mutual understanding. It is the coordinator of the UN Action Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which aims to create a free and safe environment for journalists and media workers, thus strengthening peace, democracy, and sustainable development worldwide. UNESCO is working closely with its partner organizations in Ukraine to provide support to journalists on the ground.
The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this digest do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this digest and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit to the organization.
Nataliya Stina,
Photo by Dariya Zyrianova
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