Ukrainian journalists invited to seek asylum in Kosovo

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) is able to consider several more applications from Ukraine for participation in the Journalists-in-Residence Kosovo (JiR Kosovo) Program.

The Program, funded by the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, allows journalists and media workers from Ukraine to move to work in the capital of Kosovo, Pristina, for a period of up to six months (with the possibility of extension, depending on events in Ukraine). Journalists who will come to Kosovo will have the status of protection of persons under international law.

To apply for this Program, journalists or media workers:

• had to live in Ukraine as of February 2022,

• must have a valid Ukrainian passport,

• must work as a professional journalist for at least three years,

• and speak English at least at a basic level.

For candidates who succeed in making it for the Program, the organizers, at their own expense, will help the participant with transportation to Kosovo (usually with an air flight); will provide a monthly scholarship of EUR 500; pay for housing rent (one- or two-room apartment). Also, Ukrainian journalists and media workers will have access to the office of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, whose employees and the coordinator of the Program help in every possible way to adapt the visiting colleagues. Program participants will be offered integration courses and courses on learning and improving a foreign language (English, Albanian). On request, psychological support can also be provided.

Participation in the Program is actually remote journalistic activity cooperation with mass media in Ukraine. The Program also helps those media workers who lost their jobs, housing, or other conditions for active, creative work in Ukraine due to the war to remain in the profession. For those Ukrainian journalists who have become IDPs and who can communicate in English, this international Program can be recommended as a certain support and help.

In the apartments rented by the organizers and for effective professional activity, the participating journalists have to pay for their Internet (home, if necessary, and mobile) and use their laptops, smartphones, or other gadgets by themselves.

Medical services in Kosovo are not free (with the exception of some provided by an organization that cares for refugees). Payment for utility services and used electricity also goes at the expense of Program participants.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo offers Ukrainian journalists professional training, meetings with government officials, and participation in conferences and events that may be of public interest.

A person from Ukraine coming to Pristina with a family member, for example, a journalist with a child, can be a participant in the Program (in each specific case, the decision is up to the organizers).

Among the participants of the Program are three colleagues from the Luhansk Region who had to leave the temporarily occupied territories; two media women from the Poltava Region who have teenage sons (the children have the opportunity to study at a school providing education in English), there are journalists from the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Volyn, and Kirovohrad Regions. For various personal reasons, five participants (mostly from Kyiv and Odesa) in 2022–2023 decided not to continue their stay in the Program and returned to where their relatives live.

To apply for participation in the Program, send the relevant package of documents to [email protected]

1. A filled-out application form and questionnaire (can be downloaded here)

1. A CV/resume

1. A copy of the passport

1. Letter of recommendation from the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).

Program partners:

• European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

• European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

• Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK)

• National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU)