What does it mean to do quality journalism in a time of war? | DMF 2024 Representatives of Ukrainian media shared their work experience.
Quality media is responsible media that thinks about its heroes beyond the team and its work. This is the opinion of Olena Leptuga, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Nakypilo media group, head of the Kharkiv Crisis Information Center (Kharkiv region).
“The responsibility is who you talk to. For example, by releasing an interview with a member of the Russian Legion Svoboda (fighting against the Russian army mostly on the territory of the Russian Federation – ed.), we do not intend to praise, but to show that there is such a direction,” she said.
Sometimes it can be difficult to work with news when journalists already know what happened and where, and official sources are silent. Bohdan Karkachov, editor-in-chief of News of Donbas website (Donetsk region), spoke about such problems in the work of the media. Thus, conflicts arise in communication with officials due to lack of information.
“We faced a parallel reality described in frontline cities, where, according to the authorities, nothing seems to be happening. But journalists learn from their correspondents about the problems of a particular city,” Karkachov said.
As an example, he recalled a recent incident in his work.
“I directly told the press secretary of one of the frontline cities — do you really live in a parallel reality that the authorities only provide information about the conditional greening of the city. Perhaps they were offended, but over time, the city administration did start to provide information about the closure of some businesses, evacuation of the population, and so on. So I think this kind of work of the press with the local authorities also has its effect,” Karkachov said.
Oleksiy Artyukh, editor-in-chief of TRIBUN (Luhansk Oblast), spoke about the nuances of working with information coming from the occupied territories. After all, this is also a matter of responsibility and quality.
The signal is jammed in the occupied territories of Luhansk region, especially in such cities as Lysychansk, Rubizhne, and Severodonetsk. In addition, the situation in the cities is controlled by the FSB. Previously, it was the LPR MGB, but now it is a Russian structure and the methods of governing the territory have changed.
Artyukh said that in addition to OSINT methods, the journalists of the publication use their own sources from the occupation.
“We try to protect our sources as much as possible. If there is a slight threat that a person might get hurt, we do not publish information from them. But all information must have its purpose,” noted Artyukh.
This is extremely important, because the occupiers use all repressive methods of governing the occupied territories. However, the residents of the occupation, often anonymously, turn to the Ukrainian media that write about these territories.
“Sometimes our journalists simply communicate with people from the occupied territories to support them. There were also cases when FSB representatives tried to communicate with us under the guise of ordinary people. We understand that there is a war going on and such cases can happen,” added Artyukh.
There are several independent media outlets in the Kherson region.
Yelyzaveta Zharkykh, deputy editor-in-chief of Vgoru (Kherson region), believes that the work of independent media should be influenced by the public. If this does not happen, then the work is useless. It is often necessary to ask uncomfortable questions to the authorities.
“We have to understand that we have the right to ask. For some reason, we think there are restrictions during the war. But it is very important to ask questions about corruption, budgets, responses to inquiries, what a particular official is doing on the ground,” noted Zharkykh.
She emphasizes that it is necessary to communicate with the authorities and not to confuse it with friendship.
“Representatives of the authorities come to our streams. We communicate. We write inquiries and ask difficult questions. For example, we can’t say that there is no construction of a shelter if it really exists. It has a good purpose – to protect people, but during the construction, more and more Russian drones are now flying into the homes of civilians nearby. This is a problem that needs to be voiced, and we are doing it. We do not always get a response from the authorities. If no one wants to take responsibility, it is also worth mentioning,” Zharkykh said.
Do no harm is the main rule of the media during the war. Especially in the pursuit of a large number of views. This was emphasized by Sharlotta Khmelnytska, deputy commander of Army TV.
She noted that it is important to remember that today’s military are former sports coaches, architects, doctors, i.e. people of civilian professions. And often civilian journalists ask the military questions that should not be asked. For example: “How many people did you kill in the war?”.
Another important aspect of the work of quality media was expressed by Nadiya Sorokolit, the operational director of Kordon.Media (Sumy region).
“In order for a journalist’s work to be of high quality, people working in the media must be rested. Some may say we are at war. But as practice has shown, if a journalist is in good health, his, or her physical and psychological condition is normal, the stories will be great, and the audience will respond,” Sorokolit said.
A balance in working with the government and the military, as well as an exclusive from the editorial office, will make the media’s work more qualitative, she believes.
“The strength of regional media is that they are on the ground. All the information we publish is exclusive,” added Sorokolit.
