President of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) Sergiy Tomilenko called March 8, the day when he visited his hometown of Cherkasy, a “holiday of hugs and heartfelt communication.” The President of the NUJU met with the active members of the regional organization of the Union, congratulated the female journalists on the holiday and shared his impressions of the working visit to Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk Regions.
“Today, all our thoughts are about how we can be more effective for the information front, for repelling the occupiers,” Sergiy Tomilenko said. “No matter what topics we don’t want to write about today, no matter what peaceful topics we cover, but as long as the occupier is in Ukraine, we have to write about the war. The vocation of journalists today is to objectively inform the audience, expose war crimes, inspire Ukrainians to resist, and thank our hero-defenders.”
The President of the NUJU spoke about his trip to the front-line town of Orikhiv, meetings with its residents, communication with colleagues, business contacts with representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies of the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk Regions. Most of all, Sergiy Tomilenko remembered the meeting in Dnipro with military journalists who demonstrated openness and readiness for fruitful cooperation with civilian colleagues.
The head of the Cherkasy regional organization of the NUJU, Tetiana Kalynovska, spoke about the work experience of Cherkasy journalists during the war, thanked the Union’s central office for the economic, financial, organizational, and moral support of media workers.
She also focused on the problems of journalists in Cherkasy Region, in particular, the sharpest drop in the advertising market and, as a result, serious economic problems of most newsrooms.
“In the Cherkasy Region, as in the whole of Ukraine, a third of the newspapers are not published now. Representatives of many teams of radio companies were also registered in the employment centers. 1-3 people work in media newsrooms,” said Tetiana Kalynovska. The lack of newspapers that would cover the entire audience of the newly created consolidated districts is also disconcerting. This is the situation in three of the four districts of Cherkasy Region: Cherkasy Zvenyhorod and Uman. Many local newspapers are published irregularly. This is especially sad, because in some places of the region there is still no Internet. So, the only source of information in these places is television.
Among other problems of the media in the Cherkasy Region are the organization of cooperation in the conditions of war with the authorities, the uncertainty of the practice of implementing the new law On Media, etc.
Tetiana Kalynovska also drew the attention of the NUJU’s President to the lack of protective equipment for Cherkasy journalists’ trips to the front line. Reacting to this remark, Sergiy Tomilenko provided two bulletproof vests and helmets for the Cherkasy regional organization of the Union.
Director of the Ildana TV and Radio Company/responsible secretary of the NUJU’s regional organization, Valentyna Dushok, noted the activity of the Union in defending the interests of journalists, which is quite attractive for young journalists who, despite the war, continue to join the ranks of the journalistic organization.
The oldest practicing journalist of Ukraine, Vasyl Marchenko, a 74-year-old full-time employee of the newspaper called Cherkaskyi Krai, spoke about the experience of his numerous trips to the front line, in particular, to Donbas, the south of the country, and the Ukrainian-Russian border.
“Every time I go to the front, I take with me the newspaper of the Union called We are from Ukraine! There are systemic problems with information at the front. There is no television, there is often no Internet, and even mobile communication. During my recent trip to the Chernihiv Region, my phone ended up in a roaming… In these conditions, fighters are very interested in the printed word. Newspapers are taken with genuine interest,” said Vasyl Marchenko.
It was decided that one of the sets of protective equipment allocated for Cherkasy will be at Vasyl Marchenko’s disposal.
Vasyl Marchenko also shared with those present his memories of working together with Sergiy Tomilenko in the Cherkasy-based newspaper Nova Doba.
” Sergiy Antonovych was once our editor-in-chief,” said Vasyl Marchenko. “And despite the fact that the editors were “overwhelmingly young” and wrote under the rule of “an inverted pyramid,” he accepted me, a journalist writing in an old-fashioned way, me Vasyl Marchenko. I specialized in agrarian issues and knew the geography of the region like the back of my hand. And he taught me one thing: “A newspaper is a product, a newspaper is a commodity! Vasyl Ivanovych, we need to move the newspaper and we need to find funds!”
“Vasyl Ivanovych, we learn from each other!” colleague Sergiy Tomilenko responded to these words.
The meeting with the President of the NUJU was also attended by Secretary of the Union/former long-time head of the Donetsk regional organization of the NUJU Oleksandr Bryzh, who after being forced to leave Donetsk lives in Cherkasy.
“For me, the war has been going on since 2014. Unfortunately, at that time we were losing the information war. This was reflected in the sending of Russian newspapers and television, which hammered into the heads of the people of Donbas that with the arrival of Russia they will supposedly be better off,” said Oleksandr Bryzh. Therefore, they did not come out sharply against the onslaught of Russian saboteurs. Today, the situation has changed significantly. We will no longer lose, but win the information war. This happened largely thanks to the activities of our Union, especially our Kyiv headquarters headed by Sergiy Tomilenko.”
And at the end of the meeting, all its participants signed the Ukrainian flag in memory, which will remain in the archive of the regional organization of the Union.
Maksym Stepanov, the NUJU information service
