Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv (Ukraine) (EFE) – Gathered in a bomb shelter, Ukrainian and foreign journalists discussed the challenges of making Ukrainian voices heard throughout the world, beyond the West, in the context of war .
Lviv Media Forum
More than 400 media and public sphere professionals, as well as activists, gathered at the Lviv (west) Media Forum on May 25-27 to address the challenges of covering the defense against the Russian invasion. .
Due to frequent Russian drone and missile attacks, the event took place underground to avoid interruptions from possible anti-aircraft alarms.
“One of the goals of the Lviv Media Forum is to advocate for Ukraine in international professional circles. That is why we tried to balance the list of speakers and include not only those who unquestionably support it but also moderate skeptics,” Olga Myrovych, head of the NGO that organized the event, told EFE.
“In Ukraine we sometimes think that the world has already heard us and knows what is happening here. But unfortunately, this is not universally true,” she noted, alluding to the fact that many people are not clear about what Ukraine is fighting for and see the conflict as something local, distant, between Russians and Ukrainians.
However, he added, for Ukrainians “it is a war of civilization against barbarism, for values, democratic society, everything that we have built with such difficulty.”
“It is important that there is no dialogue on Ukraine and on how to end the war without involving Ukraine. One of our key messages is that peace is only possible as a triumph against evil, not as a series of compromises with it”, she stressed.
What are the biggest challenges
Nataliya Gumenyuk, a well-known Ukrainian journalist and founder of the “Public Interest Journalism Laboratory,” explained to EFE that one of the biggest challenges is to overcome the perception that Ukraine is a “bargaining currency” between two great powers at the geopolitical level.
“I don’t think speaking to foreign audiences about the war in geopolitical terms, as is often done, is helpful, as it has an immediate polarizing effect,” he mused.
This perception, according to her, disappears as soon as someone arrives in Ukraine and talks to those affected. “Telling human interest stories helps the audience see the reality of the war much more clearly,” she said.
Gumenyuk’s organization has just launched a project called “Uniendo Continentes” and will welcome a seven-member delegation from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay next week.
He will show them the effects of the Russian invasion, taking journalists and editors to towns like Bucha and Izium and facilitating interviews with soldiers, medics and experts, among others.
Gumenyuk cautions, however, against dictating Ukrainian narratives to foreign audiences. “We have to ask what journalists and their audiences in Latin America want to know about Ukraine,” he explained.
David Stulik, former press officer of the European Union (EU) delegation in Ukraine, praised the recent initiative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to revive dialogue with African countries.
“Ukraine should talk to Africans about decolonization and show that Ukrainians have also gone through this process after the collapse of the Moscow-controlled Soviet Union,” he said.
The participants highlighted the importance of the work of journalists on the ground to show and document the war crimes committed by Russia.
“Despite all the challenges Ukrainian journalism is facing right now, there has never been a time when it was more alive than now. Our journalists have shown resilience and dedication to their profession at the most difficult time,” said Olga Myrovych.
According to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, at least 59 media professionals have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the invasion, 14 of them, both Ukrainian and foreign, while practicing their profession.