Local media in Ukraine preparing for what could be next
As the world is trying to guess what will happen in Ukraine with the international media reporting about troops and diplomatic efforts, local Ukrainian media is preparing for what could be another challenge after covering the Russian occupation of Crimea and the isolation of eastern parts of the country controlled by pro-Russian groups.
In early January, local journalists started getting helmets, vests, new first aid kits, and cell phones for emergency phone calls. They have training on how to go to shelters in case of bomb attacks, Anastasiya “Nastya” Stanko said in a conversation with Gulnoza Said, Coordinator Europe and Central Asia for US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Stanko is co-founder and former chief editor of independent Ukrainian media channel Hromadske and was 2018 awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the CPJ.
“My colleagues at Hromadske have been trying to find a new office because the current one is not very safe from bomb attacks.”
“But there are some media outlets that haven’t done any major prep work. I heard from a journalist friend who said their outlet is only working on an alternative website in case the internet or their website will be shut down.”
Sergiy Tomilenko, Head of local trade union National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) says the organisation has several protection kits with helmet and body armour marked “Press”.
“Any journalist can rent them for free. One kit is in Kyiv, and three kits are in Mariupol [in Donetsk]. We also organize safety training for journalists. In 2014, there were very few journalists in Ukraine with experience in war zones, but in the last eight years, many journalists have accumulated such experience.”
Discussing other challenges for Ukrainian journalists he says “journalists and editorial offices will be at greater risk if riots or other hostilities start.”
“The main challenges will be how to work when communication is disconnected, such as when internet access is blocked or electricity shut off. In addition, there is a low level of digital security and media literacy among journalists and the general population.”
Stanko talks about the development and how Ukrainian journalists have seen the threat growing while the international news report took quite some time to recognize it
“In December, I went to Donbass near the front line. A couple of weeks ago, I visited Kharkiv. There have been reports that Kharkiv, which is a large city with over a million of people, will be one of the first to be invaded in eastern Ukraine. Russian troops have been building up near the border since April 2021. So, it’s very strange that [only] in October and November 2021, [Western] media started reporting about a possible invasion. We, journalists in Ukraine, were surprised because we didn’t see anything new or different from the situation of a few months earlier.”
Asked how the present tensions differ from the weeks leading up to the 2014 fighting in Donbass and the occupation of Crimea she said:
“The biggest difference is that nobody expected to see Russian troops in Crimea or Donbass in 2014 until the moment the invasion started. Today, there is no element of surprise, everybody talks about it, expects something, and journalists – both Ukrainian and international – go to the border area.”
She stresses that one problem is to find out who’s telling the truth. “You can’t know who is telling the truth. For example, our president and officials say certain things, like Kharkiv may be invaded, but we don’t know for sure. Or [some foreign politicians] say the war is imminent. There are a lot of assumptions, predictions, and analysis but very few facts.”
The BBC’s country profile of Ukraine says television dominates the media scene, and private commercial channels are the leading outlets.
“National media have adopted a united patriotic agenda following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the armed conflict in the east. Ukraine has banned cable relays of leading Russian TVs; in turn, areas under Russian or separatist control have seen pro-Kiev outlets silenced.”
Facebook is the leading social network. OLX, the Ukrainian mirror of Russia’s Yandex search engine, is one of the top five most-visited websites, according to the BBC.
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