On the one hand, media close to the Kremlin have been banned from Europe’s audiovisual landscape, while Ukrainian media are struggling to make themselves heard.
An online fundraising campaign was recently launched to ensure the survival of the latter.
The crowdfunding campaign was initiated by Jakub Parusinski, associate director at Jnomics Media.
At the time of writing, more than £440,000 has already been raised to help several independent Ukrainian media outlets struggling to survive the chaos precipitated by Russia’s military offensive.
The funds will be used to help journalists from national titles like Ukrainska Pravda, Zaborona and Detector Media relocate to several European cities near Ukraine.
“For any newsroom in Kyiv, the logic looks like this: you have a small portion of your team who will stay and effectively become war correspondents,” Jakub Parusinski told The Guardian.
“The rest are moving west to run the website and operational stuff in places like Warsaw, Vilnius or Bratislava. We are helping to get the journalists out and set up in other capitals.”
Covering an armed conflict is a ‘difficult and unpredictable task’
Other crowdfunding campaigns have been set up in recent days to enable the Ukrainian media to continue covering the conflict on the ground. A highly dangerous mission: Danish reporters Stefan Weichert and Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen were shot and wounded on February 26 while reporting for the daily Ekstra Bladet near the town of Ohtyrka.
Added to this are the trying working conditions that all journalists in Ukraine are having to deal with.
“While calculating the risks, the reporters are continuing their mission to inform us, live, not far from where bombs are falling,” explained French journalist Eric Valmi in an episode of France Inter podcast “Profession Reporter” dedicated to the war in Ukraine.
For several weeks now, Ukrainian media professionals have been facing deteriorating working conditions.
The journalists of the daily Kyiv Post were dismissed on November 8. Following this wave of dismissals, the editorial team launched Kyiv Independent.
“It is crucial to bring credible news from Ukraine to the world. Especially when Russian forces are working hard to distort the perception of Ukraine abroad,” the independent media outlet’s GoFundMe page reads.
“We are not backed by a rich owner or an oligarch. We will rely first and foremost on fundraising from our readers and donors, and later on commercial activities.”
At the time of writing, more than £783,000 has been raised to help the Kyiv Independent maintain its independence despite the war in Ukraine.
“We need your support in this difficult and unpredictable task,” the media outlet noted.
“From cyberattacks, bombings, ground invasions – it is hard to predict what the days ahead will bring and what we will need to respond.”