[ad_1]
On the second day of the Russian attack, it was clear to Ukrainian journalist Natalya Lutsenko that life for the media in the country had changed.
As the blasts rocked the capital Kiev, the 32-year-old editor and her associates rushed to a bomb shelter in the building where her ICTV station is located.
Deep underground, in a dimly lit room with bare brick walls, Natalya Lutsenko appeared in front of the camera and addressed the viewers of the ICTV channel.
“I was trying to collect myself,” she told VOA by telephone. “In that video I was showing how we work now and that this is our reality now: we hide in shelters to record and broadcast.”
While reporting on that first segment, Lutsenko tried to understand the new reality unfolding in her country.
“I was almost crying in front of that camera that day because I was overwhelmed,” she told VOA. “I was trying to accept the cruel reality that was happening.”
The ICTV channel is not the only news network in Ukraine that uses bomb shelters – many of which were built after World War II – as broadcast studios.
“Almost all TV channels now have two studios; their main studios, ordinary and an addition located in the shelter in the same building, “said Olha Mykhaliuk, correspondent for the Ukraine 24 news network.
Prior to the attack, Ms. Mykhaliuk was a general-purpose journalist in Kiev, covering everything from food prices to the trendiest beauty and entertainment products.
“Of course, now we have all become war correspondents,” Mykhaliuk, 37, told VOA. “Some are on the front line, while others report from relatively safer places.”
Coordinated coverage
At the start of the war, the leaders of Ukraine’s four largest networks met to discuss how to better cover the conflict.
Their decision: to form a 24-hour news service, News United. Through it, every network has a set broadcast time to deliver uninterrupted news about the war.
“All the media realized that it would be absolutely horrible and really complicated to be on air 24 hours a day for 7 days, but it is necessary,” said Natalya Lutsenko. “So to do that, they just got together from the beginning.”
The collaboration includes ICTV parent company, StarLightMedia; Media Group Ukraine, which manages several channels, including Ukraine 24, Inter Media Group, and the 1 + 1 news channel.
“Each TV channel has about five hours of airtime for its programs,” said Natalya Mykhaliuk.
The Ukrainian government has formally supported the initiative, calling it a “National Marathon” and paving the way for the Ukrainian Public Broadcasting Company (Suspilne) to join the effort.
On March 18, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree formally requiring all national television channels to broadcast programs through a single platform.
Published on the presidential website, the decree says the government will provide funding for the measures and security of the broadcasting facilities.
The initiative allows country networks to pool resources. In editorial meetings, individual stations share the news topics they will cover, allowing other broadcasters to use that content.
“We simply share our responsibilities,” said Natalya Lutsenko. “Sometimes we share reports, especially when it comes to reports from abroad, from Poland to refugees for example.”
And while journalists work to keep audiences informed, their networks work to keep their teams safe in a war zone.
“All journalists are informed about the basic measures of the security plan and what to do in case of danger,” said Olena Shramko, head of communications at Media Group Ukraine. “We monitor their location and movements, and inform them of possible safe routes. “If necessary, we will help them evacuate.”
Scott Griffen, deputy director at the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), says the flow of information is essential in a time of conflict.
IPI has set up a database to track media misconduct in Ukraine and Russia.
“We know the truth is the first victim of war. We are already seeing this. “And that is why we are mobilizing our resources to track all these cases and try to correct them where we can,” he told VOA.
Five journalists have been killed since the beginning of the attack and several others have been injured, including a TSN channel correspondent hit by shells on Friday while reporting on a humanitarian corridor.
Propaganda war
In addition to joint broadcasting efforts, Ukraine’s major networks also created the multimedia project, Freedom.
Focusing on Russian-speaking audiences in Russia and elsewhere, the project seeks to counter Kremlin propaganda about the war.
The Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tkachenko, recently told the press that the project was also created to reach Russian forces in Ukraine.
Journalist Olha Mykhaliuk told VOA: “This project is aimed at Russian troops and I must add their mothers.”
Moscow has severely restricted the way Russian media can cover the conflict, passing a new law that provides for 15 years in prison for reporting “fake news” on the military and issuing directives on how to describe the conflict.
Access to some websites and news broadcasters, including the Russian service of VOA, has been blocked in the country and others have been forced to shut down.
This aspect, says Mr. Griffen of the IPI group, should be carefully observed.
“The Russian public is being denied access to information on a massive scale that we have not seen since Soviet times,” he said. “There are very few independent media that are able to operate in Russia, and those that operate under these dictated conditions are not able to call war a war.”VOA
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
