Yuliya Olkhovska, the editor of the newspaper Melitopolski Vidomosti, part of the MV media holding, experienced the horrors of the occupation. She survived a ruscist abduction and captivity, like most journalists in the occupied territories, and lost the opportunity to work on the holding’s resources after a hacker attack.
Its employees lost access to the editorial office in the very first days of the city’s occupation because enemy soldiers seized the premises, and the journalists did not even have time to collect their belongings. The occupiers took away the equipment and Yuliya’s mug with the image of an avocado. During the abduction of the journalist, the raiders also took away her home computer. Three weeks later, the processor was returned, but Yuliya did not risk using it because it is unknown what malicious software “surprises” the occupiers returned it with. At the end of September, almost before leaving the occupied territory, she bought a new phone to show a “clean” gadget at roadblocks.
After leaving for a safe place, the journalist with 20 years of experience established cooperation with one of the Ukrainian media. However, she was left with no working equipment, only the phone she bought before leaving the occupation. I worked on it, although it is not convenient for full-time work…
She learned about the possibility of getting a laptop with the support of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) from a colleague who contacted Yuliya Olkhovska with NUJU President Sergiy Tomilenko. So, she was delighted when the NUJU, thanks to the Lifeline Embattled CSO Assistance Fund consortium, provided Yuliya with a brand-new gadget to continue her professional activities. And Yuliya, having settled in Lviv, felt the support of the NUJU’s Journalists’ Solidarity Center staff: they invite the journalist to their events, are ready to provide the opportunity to work in the center, especially when there are problems with the light… They also discussed the possibility of providing a bulletproof vest and a helmet if Yuliya decides to visit her home.
“It is impossible to compare work on a phone and a laptop. I am happy that I have a wonderful gadget – stylish, beautiful, and fast, thanks to which the amount of information I process every day has tripled. I am very grateful to the city that sheltered me; I am grateful to the NUJU for the opportunity to get a new working tool and the Journalists’ Solidarity Center. I can do my favorite journalistic work. If only the bombs didn’t fly and we were alive. Thanks to the received laptop, I can work faster, more efficiently, and more easily and convey information to our readers,” Yuliya Olkhovska notes.
Inna Kosianchuk
