Human rights defenders met with two dozen foreign journalists

A meeting of representatives of human rights and media organizations with a group of foreign journalists took place in Kyiv. The event was held within the framework of The Europe-Ukraine Desk project initiated by the German non-governmental organization n-ost. 

The meeting was dedicated to the documentation and investigation into crimes committed in the course of Russia’s full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, and the thematic activities of Ukrainian civil society and the media. Within its framework, journalists from Bulgaria, Georgia, Spain, Italy, Moldova, Germany, Hungary, and France came to Ukraine to get a better understanding of the context and obtain contacts of Ukrainian experts and journalists for further cooperation. 

The event was attended by Tetiana Pechonchyk (ZMINA), Volodymyr Yavorskyi (Center for Civil Liberties), Natalia Humeniuk (Reckoning project), Yanina Korniyenko (Slidstvo.info), Maria Tomak (Crimea Platform). The meeting was moderated by Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief of Ukrayinska Pravda online media outlet. 

Tetiana Pechonchyk spoke about the efforts made by Human Rights Centre ZMINA in documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity, the activities of Ukraine 5AM Coalition, and the organization’s latest research on the challenges for journalists’ work in wartime. 

“The coverage of the situation in Ukraine by foreign media remains an important issue as the war continues, new crimes are committed, and the issue of supporting Ukraine to repel Russian aggression remains on the agenda. It is valuable when foreign journalists come to Ukraine to get first-hand information and communicate with victims, human rights defenders, and representatives of the authorities. At the same time, it is important that even despite the state of war, our country preserves democratic institutions and freedom of speech, opportunities for free work of journalists, including foreign ones. The outcome of the war depends on the support for Ukraine in the world, and this support is based on public opinion in different countries and information provided by the media,” Pechonchyk said.