• Friday, 14 October 2022
• Share:
• • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • Google Plus
  • Twitter

THE EPITOME OF PEACE JOURNALISM - SAVING LIVES DURING WAR

Oleksiy Soldatenko, Co-founder, Programs’ Director,

International Institute for Regional Media and Information (IRMI), Kharkiv, Ukraine.

10 October, 2022

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in its 8^th month, about 40 journalists have already died in Ukraine, dozens of other Ukrainian media workers have been abducted.

Since 2014, after the annexation of Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine by Russia Oleksiy Soldatenko, works to unveil and spread the facts, continues his work in peace journalism, but after 8 years, he states that nowadays a coverage of information is more than a journalism, access to it saves lives.

"Information saves lives"

Oleksiy Soldatenko: “For Ukrainian media, it is a very challenging period. Not only because of the conditions journalists are learning to work in, but also because of the capacities that are required to work effectively. “Public interest", "balance", "ethics" and other basic norms of the profession are now acquiring a new meaning, with many nuances, for Ukrainian journalists. The main challenge is on how reporters can provide information to their audiences safely, without harming themselves and the people who are working and fighting in the field, but still sharing useful information with the population, because there are a lot of needs.
In Ukraine, now we fully understand what «Information may save lives» means. For example, information about how people can safely evacuate from dangerous areas, or where can they get humanitarian aid or what kind of transport is working in the city, are crucial in those times.
Journalists require new skills and knowledge as well as technical and financial assistance. Many of them are from occupied territories and have moved to safer locations in Ukraine, but they are still trying to operate in the Russian-occupied territories, so their audiences can get news and not feel completely isolated.
That’s why many journalists are changing their ways of working. This especially applies to media serving people in occupied territories. If they previously published in a newspaper or broadcast on a TV channel, they are now broadcasting on Telegram or on social messengers so that people with a poor internet connection may still get some basic information to keep abreast what is happening not only in their region, but in all regions of the country.
Another big challenge is that many journalists now work on a voluntary basis. They don’t receive a regular salary anymore. That is why the emergency funding we can provide to newsrooms and independent journalists is so important. We help media to survive”.

“We support both national and regional media. Nine of 16 we have supported are from the worst-affected regions (6 are originally from occupied territories). Nine of 16 are completely or partially relocated. As the result of our 6-month support these media managed to stabilize their financial conditions so they could pay salaries to their reporters. Furthermore, 11 of 16 media were able to hire additional staff members. A valuable result is also that mostly all media have increased the amount of content produced and improved its quality. Most of them increased their audiences as a result”.

See the full article here