On July 10, teachers of the Department of Journalism and Philology of the FРSC Sumy State University Anna Chernysh, Maryna Sadivnycha and Olena Ishchenko took part in the webinar “Ukrainian media: disobedience and truth”, which took place in Brussels (Belgium) with the support of the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) (Great Britain).

The speakers of the event were the President of the EJN, Aidan White, Jeanne Cavelier (Reporters Without Borders), Jean-Paul Martose (human rights expert), Tom Law (Deputy Director of the Global Media Development Forum), and also, most importantly, media leaders from of Ukraine, in particular Andriy Kulikov (Chairman of the Ethics Commission of Ukraine) and Lina Kush (First Secretary of the Ukrainian State University), Adeline Khulin (Coordinator of the UNESCO project “Freedom of Expression/EU Partnership”).

At the beginning of the meeting, Aidan White noted that the international community should prioritize the support of democracy and freedom of journalists in Ukraine both during the war and after its end. In his opinion, education, training and media development are extremely important to create an enabling environment in which journalists will be confident, well-prepared and able to freely cover events. The speaker also emphasized the importance of the DESTIN project for the development of journalism in our country, which was implemented by the Department of Journalism and Philology of the FРSC of Sumy State University.

During the webinar, key recommendations for the organization of mass media activities in Ukraine were presented: revising journalism education with the aim of modernizing the preparation of texts and editing skills, especially related to the use of information technologies, the introduction of ethical principles and strengthening the potential for journalistic investigations; support for local media, including new initiatives to counter propaganda, disinformation and war-induced shocks, and transform the media landscape; a new dialogue between the government and mass media advocacy groups to strengthen the independence of journalism, etc.

The participation of teachers in the international webinar became possible thanks to the close cooperation of the department and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

In general, the support of foreign colleagues is extremely important nowadays. Cooperation and creative interaction is the way that #media_space_leads_to_the_universe.