Editors-in-chief of the front-line newspapers called Zoria (Lyman, Donetsk Region) and Vpered (Bakhmut, Donetsk Region) and restored in support of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and foreign benefactors, met in Odesa to discuss the situation in their small homeland and the problems faced by newspapermen in reviving their publications.
Since the situation in Bakhmut and Lyman does not allow journalists to prepare regular issues in their hometowns, editorial offices are forced to work remotely and in different ways, with the involvement of volunteers, to deliver the newspapers to readers.
“Our cities long ago gained fame as fortress cities, warrior cities. So, there is no surprise that we are constantly in contact with each other. We exchanged experience, talked about cooperation, gave each other copies of our newspapers, agreed to exchange journalist materials… We even came up with a joint slogan Vpered, Zoria! [Forward, Zoria!],” Oleksandr Pasichnyk, the head of Lyman’s Zoria, told about his meeting with the editor of Bakhmut’s Vpered Svitlana Ovcharenko.
The meeting took place on Derybasivska Street in the hero city of Odesa.
Journalists say that they do not lose contact with their colleagues from the publications of neighboring cities and regions, which they call “our corner”: Editor-in-Chief of the Obrii Iziumshchyny Kostiantyn Hryhorenko, and Head of the Visti from Sloviyansk Oleksandr Kulbaka.
“We have a kind of journalistic quartet: we communicate, exchange experience and news, help each other. In these difficult times, such human cooperation is of great importance. We are convinced: where there is a Ukrainian newspaper, there is Ukraine!,” says Oleksandr Pasichnyk.
The resumption of newspaper publishing in the de-occupied and front-line territories is one of the priorities in the NUJU team’s work. Currently, with the financial support of the NUJU and foreign benefactors, one or more issues of newspapers have been printed for Izium (Obrii Iziumshchyny), Lyman (Zoria), Barvinkove (Visti Barvinkivshchyny), Bakhmut (Vpered), Kherson (Novyi Den), Snihurivka (Visti Snihurivshchyny), Zolochiv (Zoria), Kharkiv (Selianska Gazeta), Zmiyiv (Visti Zmiyivshchyny), Blyzniuky (Nove Zhyttia), Bohodukhiv (Mayak), Kupiyansk (Visnyk Kupiyanshchyny), publishing of several more editions are expected.
NUJU information service
