President of the Academy of Ukrainian Press urged journalists thoroughly to verify facts about events in the Eastern Ukraine and deal with journalism, not propaganda.
The confidence in media should be the activity goal constituent for journalists who report about the conflict in the East of Ukraine. This was emphasized by President of the Academy of Ukrainian Press, Valeriy Ivanov while opening the training session ‘Journalistic standards under the circumstances of martial conflict’ for local publication journalists. The training was conducted in town Nikopol.
He appealed to journalists accurately to check facts in news and materials just from the original sources. ‘Donbas journalists have got tired from correcting messages from metropolitan media’, - announced Ivanov. – ‘In the information age there are not any difficulties in calling local journalists by phone in order to ask what is true and what is not’. He illustrated the last year situation as the example when central media reported about the explosion in Mariupol that never happened. The governmental institutions denied this message only in the afternoon but the information about explosion remained in the evening news broadcast.
Besides that, as the example of breaking professional standards Valeriy Ivanov called the TV channel news item about the death of ‘Today’ newspaper photo correspondent, Serhii Nikolayev who died in Feb. 28, 2015 in ATO zone. ‘The message about death of relatives should be delivered by corresponding institutions but not heard in television, - said Ivanov. – This is unaccepted and against the journalistic ethical standards. After this there is no point to tell about the last life seconds footage. I understand that ‘field’ journalists send their filmed video but the editor in Kyiv has to think about the form of conveying messages which can danger relatives of the lost one’. He reminded that inn western media this process is perfectly coordinated: they do not demonstrate the bodies close-up and do not publish the names of lost people till the official announcements are made. This is not the question of exclusiveness or being the first but journalistic activity ethical norms.
This opinion was supported by another training moderator, ‘Weekly Mirror’ newspaper founder, Journalistic Ethics Committee head, Volodymyr Mostovyi. ‘Striking video or so-called hate speech currently used by journalists for drawing public attention to the problem of the East is bad practice, - he accentuated. – Journalists should not deal with propaganda, honesty and balance of conveying thoughts are necessary’. Mostovyi also stressed the importance of verifying all facts which are used by journalist while preparing the materials in conflict zone. He gave the example when ‘Weekly Mirror’ won the trials as all written information was documented.
Journalists form Nikopol actively participated in discussions about the journalist’s role and activity in martial conflict zone. In the first line, the typical journalistic standard breaking cases in materials, problems concerning confirmation of reliability, access and receiving information from official sources, publishing information sources were discussed.
The training session ‘Journalistic standards under the circumstances of martial conflict’ was organized by the Academy of Ukrainian Press for local publication journalists by support of Media Development Foundation of the U.S. Embassy.
