Thanks to joint projects with the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), the Glavcom national publication was able to receive financial assistance from the Ukrainian Media Fund and retain its staff, says Mykola Pidvezianyi, the editor-in-chief of the publication.
“Glavcom has a fruitful cooperation with NUJU in the projects called We are from Ukraine! and Journalists are Important! A series of materials released as part of these initiatives have attracted readers’ interest: their total audience from May 2022 to mid-December amounted to 456,000 unique users. The heroes of the publications of the project called We are from Ukraine became ordinary citizens – representatives of various professions: all of them were united by the idea of helping those who were in trouble during the war. Volunteers, civilian and military medics, railway workers, teachers and even an actor, who picked up a weapon, told their stories of service to Ukraine and its people,” commented Mykola Pidvezianyi.
Among the materials, the story about conductor Anatolii Babichev (author – Mykhailo Hlukhovskyi) received a special response. During the flight for Lyman in the Donetsk Region, on the night of March 12-13, the train in which he worked with his wife Nataliya came under fire. The train was headed for the children of Donbas to take them to a safe place. Nataliya then died as a result of a shrapnel wound. Anatolii, despite the pain of the loss, soon returned to work. Later, the railman received President’s award called National Legend of Ukraine.
As part of the Journalists are Important initiative, Glavcom talks about the work of media workers during the war. The character of the first material from this series (the author is Nataliya Sokyrchuk) was a military TV presenter Natalka Nahorna: she has been working on the front line for eight years. From her own experience, the reporter spoke about the principles of working in hot spots and the ethics of war journalism.
“I would also like to single out the powerful work of the team of the NUJU itself. Glavcom had the honor of receiving not only financial, but also quality content support from the organization – the portal became a platform where materials prepared by the press service of the Union were published for the first time. They were dedicated to the work of journalists during the war, the resistance of Ukrainian media workers during the occupation, as well as the stories of journalists who were killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” adds the Glavcom’s editor-in-chief.
According to Mykola Pidvezianyi, the support of international partners of NUJU, in particular, the initiative of the Ukrainian Media Fund, Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation, was, without exaggeration, timely.
“With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the work of the editorial office was disrupted. A large part of the employees is dispersed across the country. Sources of income disappeared: advertisers stopped their activity in the media, partner programs were curtailed. Thanks to joint projects with the NUJU, we will save the team during the war. There were no forced layoffs. The work of the site was not interrupted even for a minute. During the period of the invasion, we also managed to complete the program of site design changes and updating its technical part,” Mykola Pidvezianyi says.
Currently, the publication sets itself another task – to provide workers located in different parts of the country with autonomous power sources to ensure uninterrupted work.
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During the program of assistance to Ukrainian media in 2022, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, with the strong support of partners, Ukrainian Media Fund and Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation, provided financial assistance to 43 newsrooms.
In the content projects entitled We are from Ukraine! and Journalists are important!, initiated by NUJU, 36 media outlets participated on a regular basis. They received financial assistance from partners for a period of two months or more. In particular, 29 regional and local newsrooms are among the project participants. Seven all-Ukrainian media, with a total audience of over 3.5 million readers, also received assistance from the NUJU and the Ukrainian Media Fund. Thanks to the help, 25 Ukrainian media – participants in the NUJU projects – were able to pay for the printing of their newspapers.
During the period the project We are from Ukraine! has been implement, more than 480 author’s materials about strong-spirited Ukrainians who help their compatriots during the war have been published or broadcast in local and national media. In two months of implementation of the initiative Journalists are important! media participants of the project have published more than 80 materials about the work of their colleagues.
The Ukrainian Media Fund’s initiative was launched by the Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation together with partner organizations of media companies in the Scandinavian countries. The fund was established as a sign of solidarity with journalists and photographers who report daily from the frontline in Ukraine. Its main goal is to mobilize international support – both financial and material – for local mass media in Ukraine. Thus, through the Ukrainian Media Fund, protective equipment and equipment for work were transferred to Ukrainian journalists. The aid included laptops, power banks, photo and video cameras, tripods, and smartphones.
