How Europe can get rid of stereotypes about Ukraine

European journalists and teachers of social communications are convinced that freedom should come to Ukraine first and foremost via free and professional media. For this our country needs to train the young generation of intelligent, principled, and demanding journalists. Actually, the stake on the young generation of journalists, which is a topic of active debate in Germany, has something in common with the idea of what Den has been doing for 12 years in succession, holding free Summer School of Journalism on an annual basis. Not only does editorial office teach professional skills to young colleagues, but it also fosters in them the conscious vision of their country and civic stand. With the help of this it actually trains new professionals, and, it should be mentioned, increases the level of internal competition in the team. However, the coordinators of the European project which is ideologically close to ours used as the basis the work not with students, but their teachers. In particular, scholars and journalists from German University Passau who are coordinators of the program TEMPUSIV “Cross-media and quality journalism” (CuQ), in the framework of which the international conference “Freedom through media” was held in Passau October 3 through 5, seek to exchange experience, teach European standards of teaching media in universities to our scholars.

Scholars from universities of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Austria, and Germany took part in the project. So, Germans, Austrians, and Romanians are helping their fellows from Ukraine and Moldova to use the technologies of European higher education in the sphere of social communications; for example, a common educational program has been developed and our higher educational institutions have been provided with modern media equipment. Actually, the conference “Freedom through Media” has become the ground to sum up certain results of cooperation and discuss actual problems in the world of media, in particular, the information wars.

“In fact, we are sure that freedom may come through media. Therefore the main goal of the project is to improve the level of journalistic education, because Moldova and Ukraine have stated that they aspire to join the EU. We have three major directions of work. Above all, it is the development of joint educational plan for all students of higher educational establishments which cooperate with us. I.e., our university Passau has made scholarly proposals how we imagine this, and our partner universities have modified and modernized the program according to their vision and legislation,” says one of the supervisors of the project, the head of the department of science of communication at Passau University Ralf Hohlfeld. “The next part of the project, ‘teach the teacher,’ serves this purpose, in order to have an opportunity to teach journalists. I.e., for good journalists to be trained in the universities, we want to teach their teachers at first. The third part is the financial support. For the money of the EU we install in partner universities special equipment for the work of young inexperienced journalists. So, in particular, Ukrainian universities have received the equipment to create small editorial offices, actually, their own news rooms (Macintosh computers, software, iPads, video cameras, cameras, recording machines, microphones, etc.). All universities, except for the Simferopol University, have received it. By the way, we are working on the project jointly with Dnipropetrovsk-based Honchar National University, Odesa-based Mechnykov National University, Chernivtsi-based Hnatiuk University, Sumy State University, and since recently with Taurida Vernadsky National University. However, we won’t send expensive equipment to the Crimea, because the essence of the project is to help to build democracy and civil society through media in Ukraine. And the annexation of the peninsula by Russia is proof of different moods of their leadership.”

Den/The Day is a partner of this international project, and Ralf Hohlfeld emphasized this, noting that he is a long time adherent and reader of our newspaper. As a part of the program of the conference “Freedom through Media” the author of these lines presented to scholars and journalists from different countries the main achievements of our newspaper, in particular Den’s Library. The latest publication of the series Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25 (in English) has drawn interest of German and Austrian media workers, who openly admitted that they don’t know the history of Ukraine and mentality of our people. And namely such publications help foreigners to better understand our country.

However, in spite of positive impressions from the conference, in particular, topical reports on the situation with the freedom of media in Ukraine and Moldova delivered at section sessions, outlining of the role and meaning of quality press for our country, the event left some unpleasant trail of emotions caused by the direct vision by foreigners of current problems in Ukraine and the role of mass media in solving them. In particular, German journalists kept asking their Ukrainian colleagues why they don’t give the word to the second side of the conflict, i.e., terrorists. And the editor-in-chief of Bayerisches Fernsehen Sigmund Gottlieb on the whole noted that Ukrainian media are involved in propaganda, like the Russian media, mentioning the well-known expression that during the war the truth is the first to die. Clearly, he didn’t mention any concrete examples of total propaganda in our media. However, he noted that those who are not involved in propaganda still have “patriotic scissors” in their minds and hide important facts about the conflict. It is easy to speak about journalism standards when there is no war in your country. And asking the killer why he shot at you is not common practice in any normal country, including Germany.

Don’t German journalists violate the approved European media standards when they report on the situation in Ukraine, without getting deeper into the essence of the problem? By sticking to their “standards,” don’t they operate the myths and stereotypes imposed on them as a result of information special operations? Aren’t they captives of Russian propaganda? The Day talked about this with head of the department on the science of communication at Passau University, journalist Ralf HOHLFELD.

How do German media assess the situation in Ukraine? Why do your mass media often give ambiguous assessments?

“A debate, I would even say, heated discussion of what is the correct way to highlight the events in Ukraine is underway in German media and society on the whole. The so-called mainstream media write from the viewpoint of support of Maidan. For a long time they have been giving exclusively critical assessment of the actions of Vladimir Putin and were categorically defending Ukraine. This is their stand, the stand of young generation of our journalists. Today these media are blamed for too much support of Maidan, showing only your pro-European politicians, whereas the German understanding of quality journalism, so to say the golden rule, is not to present one-sided messages. But another problem of German media is the older generation of journalists. There are many reporters over 50-60, who are influential in society and used to work in the time of the USSR. These people are now calling Germans to ‘understand’ Russia. Some reporters from the older generation are blaming their colleagues from the new media that they have too much accreted with the stand of official Kyiv. However, often neither the former, nor the latter know the context of Ukraine. What kind of country is it mentally? Why have people lost patience and gone to Maidan for the second time? Frankly, some of them write superficially, without getting deeper into the essence of the problem. They don’t know the historical ground. To some extent the reason is that for a long time the German media haven’t had any offices in Kyiv. They wrote about Ukraine from Moscow. Now the situation is changing. The interest to Ukraine is huge. Big newspapers, such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung are actively sending journalists to Ukraine. These media workers take commentaries from the victims of terrorists and publish them. This produces a huge effect on our society. But, frankly, the tendency of ‘Putin plague’ can be traced in the media, i.e., one can say that the number of those who seek to understand or even justify certain Putin’s action is growing. And the media are playing not the last role in this.”

Is “Putin’s plague” the result of Russian lobby in German media?

“Today there is much talk about the Russian lobby in German mass media. I wouldn’t exaggerate its influence. Of course, there are exceptions, when people openly serve Russia. In particular, I can say this about Germany’s ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is working for Russia today and is financed by Gazprom. Today he often appears on German media, but I assure you, his commentaries are very strongly criticized. There is no direct influence of Russia on German media for sure.”

Speaking not about lobby, but Russian propaganda in Germany, what’s its influence on journalists, in particular?

“Yes, Germans have access to Russian propaganda media. Since Maidan events I have been watching Russia Today on cable television. As a teacher, I use their reports during the lectures as an example how it shouldn’t be done. I tell the students: you can learn mathematics for as long as you want, but the news in Russia Today in the evening will still prove that 2 plus 2 equals 5. I do this because I want to draw their attention to the total falsehoods and facts of manipulation. I want to emphasize that during the crises, during wars one type of propaganda counteracts another one. Therefore I would not want Ukraine to respond with propaganda. On the contrary to Russian powerful state propaganda, which is lying about Ukraine, your media must show the real state of affairs. In Ukraine there is no classic propaganda, rather it is often the blind trust to the government and the president. It is good to quote the primary sources, such as Yatseniuk, but even during the war and total unity of the country’s spirit you should not blindly spread the words of leaders without checking. Even the official statements of the government are not always true. The European quality media often distinguish and criticize the political PR of Merkel and Obama. From what I can judge, in your country political PR performs the role of propaganda, and it hides the real reasons and essences of the problem.

“Journalists above all must fulfill their professional duties and not get involved in information wars. Even today, during the crisis in Ukraine, you cannot write only about the losses and events in the front. Yes, this is the most important thing, but you should not forget either about criticism of the power. I respect some Ukrainian publications which criticize not only the enemy, Russia, but above all write critically about the wrong steps taken by the new power. And they are doing this very professionally, like, for example, the much respected by me newspaper The Day. For me citing The Day as a source of information is an important reference in German press. This platform, as well as some other Ukrainian websites, which refer to serious sources and write argumentatively. I receive a good picture of what is going in Ukraine. I’m very much thankful to your newspaper for the present, the book Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25. This is a very good book, which is important above all for Europeans. It is wonderful that it has been published in Ukrainian, Russian, and English. With your help I have access to the best things. Hopefully, such publications will help Europeans understand why two revolutions have taken place in your new history.”