TIME: What It's Like for Ukrainian Journalists Reporting on the War in Their Country
BY LISA ABEND / VILNIUS
UPDATED: MARCH 6, 2022
Excerpt:
The difficulty of balancing safety with the demands of the job is one that all war correspondents face, but for Ukrainian journalists—many of whom never intended to cover conflict but have found they have no choice—it is complicated by the fact that what they are reporting on is a violent assault on their own country. That simple fact adds a level of emotional distress and uncertainty to the many professional dilemmas they are confronting. It also makes the journalism they are producing all the more remarkable. “I think it’s fair to say that it is more difficult for us than, say, for foreign journalists,” says Rudenko. “We’re not just telling the story, we’re living the story.”
To help both his own and other Ukrainian journalists continue to do their work, Parusinski, Kyiv Independent’s chief financial officer, has set up two GoFundMe campaigns. The first, established before the invasion, was originally intended to launch The Kyiv Independent, but has since been partly adapted to get its reporters the kind of equipment—body armor and satellite phones rank high—they need in wartime. The second fund is devoted to supporting other independent Ukrainian outlets. “Our thinking was that it’s entirely unpredictable how things will go but it was clear overall that the media will need huge support,” he says. “Their market is gone, their government may be gone, their civilization is gone.”
Support for both funds has been strong: having far surpassed its original goal, the one for The Kyiv Independent has almost met its new one of 1.2 million pounds ($1.59 million). The other, to be used by vetted media, is doing almost as well. The top priority for the money, Parusinski says, is to develop the kind of technology solutions that will keep those media viable even if they’re attacked: cloud storage, server migration, hosting, debugging. “But we’re also trying to be a stopgap for expenses, logistical support, emergency supplies—getting all of them to the media before the cities are cut off.”
Should it become necessary, some of the money will also be used to set up local journalists in neighboring capitals like Warsaw and Vilnius so they can continue to cover the situation in Ukraine from a safe distance. Already, the Kyiv Independent has contingency plans in place should they lose access to the internet or find it impossible to publish for other reasons. “We have people across the border who have access to the website and know that if something happens, and we get cut off, they need to pick up the website,” says Rudenko. “We have people in North America who have all the passwords and they know what to do too.”
https://time.com/6155219/ukrainian-journalists-challenges-reporting-war-kyiv-independent/
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