PROTECTOR

I, as a television viewer, sometimes have to overcome some defense mechanisms within myself before switching on “Olha Herasymyuk's Versions.” Yet, I try doing so every time. For I consider Olha's difficult job as a top height of journalism and a phenomenon in our life.

We will soon choose not between the Left and the Right but between the immoral and moral. We have a chance to enter the new century with a feeling of renewal. A century where Ukrainian heroes will not be puerile politicians spruced up by image-makers but the so far little known personalities of the class of Gandhi, Petro Hryhorenko, and Mother Theresa.

In this sense, Olha Herasymyuk's journalism is a thing for all seasons. A journalist who helps us find sympathy, affection and a firm ground for common actions society will always need. Olha Herasymyuk makes her programs about those humiliated and insulted by our rulers, by their absolute indifference to people, their warped system of coordinates, for example, about Yuri Chobotar infected with HIV at a village hospital, or policeman Kaminsky behind bars. Olha's journalism means hidden courage without fanfare, for which, thank God, no awards are conferred in this country (and Olha did not have to wriggle out). This is a normal system of criteria, with which even cynics and skeptics do not argue, perhaps because Olha never makes any political declarations. But I think she is in fact one of our best political journalists. If by politics we mean not just idle talk but the way a person acts and defends his/her right to action and persuasion.

And I like it very much that Olha combines self-assertion with lyricism. She was also very organic in her previous project, “Edge of Night,” full of magic and certain mysticism. I remember Olha telling a story that a child once saw her on the street and suddenly said, “Oh, Xena, the warrior princess!” This joke makes very good sense: it combines the ideas of a princess and a warrior. She strengthens our belief that members of the Association to Combat Fear can win.