War in Ukraine: Fundraising to Save Local Media

On the seventh day of the Russian attack in Ukraine, the war of influence rages between the two countries. On the one hand, media close to the Kremlin have been banned from the European audiovisual landscape, while Ukrainian media are struggling to make themselves heard. An online cat has recently been launched to ensure the survival of the latter.

This crowdfunding campaign was initiated by Jakub Parusinski, associate director at Jnomics Media. More than £430,000 (about £516,000) has already been raised to help several independent Ukrainian media outlets as they try to survive the chaos caused by Vladimir Putin’s military offensive.

These funds will be used to help journalists from national titles such as Ukraine PravdaZaborona and Media Detector to settle in several European cities near Ukraine. “For any newsroom in Kiev, the logic is this: you have a small part of the team that stays behind and basically becomes a war correspondent”Jakub Parusinski told the British daily, the Guardian“Others go west to manage the website and operational activities in places like Warsaw, Vilnius or Bratislava. We help journalists to evacuate and settle in other capitals. †

Covering an armed conflict, a “difficult and unpredictable task”

In recent days, other crowdfunding campaigns have been launched to allow Ukrainian media to continue to monitor the conflict on the ground. A very dangerous mission: Danish reporters Stefan Weichert and Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen were shot and wounded on February 26 while reporting for the newspaper Extra Bladet near the town of Okhtyrka.

Added to this are the harsh working conditions faced by all journalists present in Ukraine. “While calculating the risks, the reporters continue their mission to inform, live not far from the place where the bombs fall”explains French journalist Eric Valmi in an episode of the France Inter podcast “Profession Reporter” devoted to the war in Ukraine.

Send credible news about Ukraine

For several weeks now, Ukrainian media professionals have been confronted with deteriorating working conditions. The daily journalists Kiev message were dismissed from their position on November 8. After this wave of layoffs, the editorial team launched Kyiv independent“It is essential to broadcast credible news about Ukraine to the world. Especially when Russian troops try to distort the perception of Ukraine abroad.”we read on the GoFundMe page of the independent media. “We are not supported by a rich landlord or an oligarch. We rely mainly on fundraising from our readers and donors, and later on commercial activities”

So far, more than 773,000 pounds sterling (approximately 928,000 euros) has been raised to help the Kyiv independent despite the war in Ukraine retained its independence. “We need your support in this difficult and unpredictable task”worries the media. “Whether it’s cyber-attacks, bombings or ground invasions, it’s hard to predict what the coming days hold and what we need to respond to”

(ETX Daily Up)

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