How to overcome the “informational isolation”?

The event took place at the “Isolation” Cultural Initiatives Platform, and brought together about 300 delegates of regional, national, and international media, as well as of NGOs. The Forum was organized by Donetsk Institute of Information (chairman Oleksii Matsuka) and supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with a range of media from the east. In these complicated social and political circumstances – the war and the unprecedented Russian aggression   – media representatives hoped to find answers to the most urgent and complex issues: among others is how to react on the challenges of information war, waged by Russia against Ukraine; how to bring the word of truth to the people in ATO zone; and how can an independent media survive on its own?

Organizers declared Donbas Media Forum to be a platform for dialog between regional and international media, cultural initiatives, and NGOs, in order to develop civil society and strengthen the principles of independent journalism in the region. A sincere professional conversation was planned, and the organizers hoped for as many as 50-60 people to show up. However, the forum has gathered so much attention among journalists, experts, and members of international organizations that the registration process had to be halted prematurely, as more than 400 people expressed their desire to participate.

TONS OF LIES PUT PRESSURE ON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF PEOPLE

The first thing that was impossible not to notice is the warm, touching, and almost family atmosphere throughout the Forum. It was understandable, because there gathered the colleagues, who had been scattered by war to different parts of Ukraine. Many people had not seen each other for more than a year, and some, like Vadym Altukhov from Makiivka and Serhii Furmaniuk from Donetsk, had only recently been freed from the terrorists’ basements.

On the first day of the forum media experts from Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, (including the author of this article), as well as Volodymyr Kipen from Donetsk Institute of Social Research and Policy Analysis have outlined the situation in the eastern region. Experts believe the biggest problems to be the information isolation of the occupied territories and the lack of information about the areas controlled by Ukrainian authorities. After all, for over a year our compatriots in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have been subjected to intensive Russian propaganda, dirty streams pouring from dozen Russian television news channels, separatist TV channels, websites, and publications. The minds of these people are being put to pressure by tons of anti-Ukrainian cynical lies, accusations, and slander on a daily basis.

Most pro-Ukrainian journalists had to flee, leaving everything behind – their editorial offices, homes, libraries, collections – everything that constituted their peaceful, “GRAD-less” life. According to Ihor Zots, editor of Donechyna newspaper, it was ironical that the last year’s Journalist Day marked the complete defeat of Donetsk regional media. Some media in Donetsk, such as Life regional newspaper, Evening Donetsk, and Panorama were forced to shut down. Evening Makeevka began serving the separatists. A popular newspaper Donbas had been closed for a while, and now cuts down its issues from four to one per week. The rest comes out in electronic format.

Dozens of journalists were left without their livelihoods. Many of them still cannot find a job – and it was also a problem discussed during the forum. And the debate had discovered an interesting phenomenon. Andrii Dikhtiarenko from Luhansk said: “We find ourselves in a unique situation: on the one hand, we are the immigrants, on the other hand – we have kept our media despite all of this.” Indeed, the journalists of Donetsk and Luhansk are left without homes, but they mostly continue the in-detail coverage of the events in the occupied territories, of the citizens’ problems out there, of the internally displaced, the military, and the wounded. Donechyna, which was the only Ukrainian-language newspaper in Donetsk, is now being published only occasionally, by the personal money of Ihor Zots, its editor, and some donations from Kyiv citizens. Roman Lazarenko and his colleagues are now in Lviv, still managing the Donetsk news website 62.ua. Dikhtiarenko now works at “Radio Liberty” and funds “The Real Newspaper” with his salary. In Kyiv are the editorial offices of several websites: “Island,” “News of Donbas,” and “Donetsk press club,” the latter administrating the “Free Donbas” feed on Facebook.

YURII STETS SAID HELLO AND… VANISHED

Of particular interest to the visitors was the discussion on “The situation in Donbas in the eyes of journalists of Donbas,” which was attended by Yevhen Fialko, editor of Our Druzhkivka; Dmytro Durniev, editor of Moscow Komsomolets in Donbas (Mariupol); Vitalii Vyholov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Community (Kramatorsk); Serhii Sakadynsky from Luhansk, chief editor of “Politics 2.0” website. These Donbas journalists talked about the survival of media in circumstances of the socio-economic crisis and the reduction of advertising; the need for a genuine renewal of local leadership where still many former Party of Regions members remain as officials; the need for quality information for our fellow citizens; the lack of an effective information policy; the importance of independent media. It’s a shame that they were heard neither by government representatives, who did not bother to attend the event, nor by the Information Policy Minister Yurii Stets, who unfortunately found time only to deliver the welcome speech, where he promised to “listen to criticism, and meet everyone during the discussions” – afterwards, he just vanished.

In general, during the forum one couldn’t help but have the impression that the problems of Russian aggression against Ukraine, informational isolation of our compatriots in the occupied territories, and the fate of internally displaced journalists, and media in exile – that these issues concern the representatives of international institutions more than Ukrainian organizations that were created to deal with them.

The forum had a lot of interesting ideas and proposals that require analysis. But when it comes to the preliminary conclusion, the most important fact is that Donbas Media Forum was held at all. It is very positive that for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine the journalists gathered in such a format to discuss their painful problems – and made it happen without any involvement of the government, without the financial support of the oligarchs, and the instructions from city mayors, ministers and other officials, and certainly not for someone’s PR. This event has proven that journalists of Donbas en masse are loyal to Ukraine. Having lost everything, they kept their media. Realizing that the first stage of the information war had been lost by Ukraine, they are out to win the second stage of the struggle for the souls and minds of those who remain in the occupied territories. The event demonstrated that among Donbas journalists there is a cohort of young, active, patriotic people who want to be independent and to work by the world-class professional standards.

THE PATERNALISTIC VIEWS

Nevertheless, the forum had also revealed the paternalistic views of some journalists from Donbas: “Give us free paper, help with grants, find jobs for us...” However, these things are typical for all the other regions of Ukraine. Somewhat upsetting is the lack of serious and deep discussion on professional standards, code of ethics, and self-regulation, though it was impossible to reach many important topics in mere two days. Whatever topic we had started to discuss, the conversation went back to the most painful one – the war. Based on how emotional were the discussions and meetings, one could argue that the forum had also a kind of psychotherapeutic effect. For the journalists who have been more than a year living in constant stress, for the survivors of attacks and captures, it was important to speak out, to be heard and understood. And so it happened, as only like-minded people gathered at the forum. Of course, the organizers’ goal was not only to discuss important issues and share experiences, but also to develop instruments that could help solving the discussed problems. Therefore, the forum participants agreed on a resolution (which at the moment is being finalized and will be announced soon) and decided to create a single data server hosting the archives of Donbas media – that will help keeping the history of publications before the war and transferring the knowledge and experience from the older generation to younger journalists. Also, most importantly, the remarkable number of speeches resonated with confidence in the victory of Ukraine and the return of Donbas. As for the sad conclusion, the lack of interest from the government was already mentioned. So, the brief attendance to the Forum was given by: Iryna Herashchenko, presidential adviser on the peace settlement of the situation in the Donbas; Yurii Stets, Minister of Information Policy; and Tetiana Popova, the minister’s deputy. And, alas, that’s all... Also, the participants had hoped to receive clear and understandable answers to their questions from these officials: when and in what form the media, working in the ATO zone, might expect the support from the state; what is the outline of the Strategy for information security; how soon the TV broadcasting will be restored in the occupied territories; what is the position of the Ministry about invitations to cooperation, received by Ukrainian journalists from the separatist leaders; will the journalists that agree to such “cooperation” receive guarantees of their safety; which vector – war or peace – should the journalists use in the information policy? Unfortunately, no responses were given by the politicians to the forum participants.