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INFO BRIEF: October, 2011
Third School Session
From 27 until 30 October 2011, the third session of the “NEW UKRAINE� Professional Journalism School took place in Lviv, Ukraine, and focused on the issues of European integration, as well as coverage of international affairs, prevention of corruption, media management, morality and national memory. Two training courses were also offered on Public Policy Analysis and Journalistic Investigations. In addition, the School participants had a possibility to enrich their knowledge on local realities.
October 27, 2011 The session was opened with a presentation made by Vadym TRYUKHAN, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, titled “Association or Reintegration: What To Expect At the Next Foreign Policy Crossroads”. Mr Tryukhan described the main evolution stages of Ukraine’s foVadym TRYUKHAN
reign policy over the years of its independence, such as Ukraine’s establishment as a sovereign
state (1991-1994), multi-vector policy pursued by its second President (1994-2005), post-Orange revolution romanticism (2005-2010), and the new multi-vectorism (2010-2015). He also listed the foreign policy results achieved by the current President. In addition, Mr Tryukhan gave his forecast for 2012-2015, having noted that signature of the association agreement with the European Union will put the country back onto the democratic rails of development, which will essentially increase Ukraine’s chances to join the EU. Ambassador also believes that in the future new cooperation directions will open for Ukraine, such as China, Turkey, Latin America, and Africa. Mr Tryukhan noted that apart from the European integration there is also another development scenario which envisages Ukraine’s integration into the postSoviet space by joining the Customs Union, participating in the formation of the Euroasian Union, as well as winding up cooperation with many international organisations.
Oleh SYNYUTKA, First Deputy Mayor of Lviv, who was the next to speak, described how the city was getting ready to EURO-2012, public involvement in this process, as well as the related promotion cam-
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paign. Additionally, he also dwelled on the construction and opening of the Lviv Arena Stadium, reconstruction of roads inside and outside Lviv, public transportation upgrade etc. Answering to the questions about the stadium’s fate after the championship, Mr Synyutka said that it was most probably going to become private property.
Oleh SYNYUTKA
State budget funds are being used intensively to get Lviv ready for EURO-2012. Without the support of the central authorities, the city will not be able to conduct the championship on its own.
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At the end of the first day, the journalists were given a tour of Lviv, which enabled them to see and visit famous buildings, churches and monuments, as well as to learn more about the city history.
Tour of Lviv
October 28, 2011
Roman KOBETS, representing the Institute of Philosophy of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and lecturer of the Philosophy Department at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, began the second day with a training session on public policy analysis. He started with presenting the key definitions, like policy, politics, public administration, having warned the journalists that making no difference among these notions results either in politicisation of administration
Roman KOBETS
(dismissal of “strangers” and appointment of “loyal” civil servants), or de-politicisation of politics, when politics is brought down to power fights, while public policy is left only to “professionals”. During the
The optimal public policy is a purposeful act and should be informed, timely, coordinated, efficient, and sensitive.
training, the participants had a possibility to use the acquired knowledge in practice and to analyse the public policy stakeholders in the area of digital broadcasting.
The next speaker, Victoria SYUMAR, Executive Director of the Institute of Mass Information, focused on the coverage of international affairs in the Ukrainian media. The expert urged the participants to look for information on international news and analytical materials in the original documents (primary sources) and to get in touch with colleagues in other countries for help and contacts. As an example of poor “international journalism”, Ms Syumar mentioned the news presented by the Ukrainian media during the Russian-Georgian war, when local media took 68% of their messages from Russian sources. Ms Syumar believes that an inVictoria SYUMAR
ternational journalist should be able to look into the mediaschool.parlament.org.ua
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process in the society and the state in the geopoVictoria SYUMAR: Unfortunately, Ukraine is absolutely not ready for information wars. Our problem is that we lack global thinking, we even do not think about launching a satellite to space.
litical and geo-economic contexts. To write sound articles on international affairs, journalists should be aware of all key theories of international relations, which will essentially extend their abilities to present even ordinary events.
Presentation made by Volodymyr VYATROVYCH, Chairman of the Academic Board of the Centre for Liberation Movement Studies, was dedicated to the national memory issues. The historian noted that the key concepts of Ukraine’s ethnic culture and history should form the basis for the development of the Ukrainian political nation. It is these features that will make it possible to make the community that has been formed the Ukrainian nation with its own unique face. Mr Vyatrovych noted that Ukrainians’ sporadic efforts to form their own nation in Ukraine go side-by-side with the development of a new version of the Russian nation, the so called “Russian World”, which in the geopolitical context means establishment of a global Slavonic civilisation, resulting in dilution of the Ukrainian cul-
Volodymyr VYATROVYCH
Ukraine as a state can exist only with the help of Ukrainians, while Ukrainians can fully establish themselves only with the state of Ukraine.
tural fundamentals for Ukraine. The lecturer stressed that national consolidation is highly necessary for the development of the state in order to stop history from being used in any campaigns aiming to split Ukraine. In addition, he also stressed the importance of well-weighted national memory policy which should include develop-
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ment of a concept for the “handbook” history of Ukraine, establishment of the “places of memory”, and creation of a historic dates calendar.
As a logic extension of the previous presentation, the journalists visited the Prison at Lontskyi National Memorial Museum dedicated to the victims of the occupation regimes. They learned more about the history of the building, the everyday life of the prisoners who were held there, as well as the mass execution of people by the firing squads of the Soviet Army at the end of June 1941.
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The final presentation was given at a coffee meeting with Andriy PAVLYSHYN, historian, journalist, member of the «Ї» Magazine Board, and was dedicated to the morality as the condition of the Ukrainian society. During the discussion, the historian stressed his own concept of the morality crisis in Ukraine. In his opinion, amorality and morality anaemia are caused by the gigantic traumas that the Ukrainian people had to go through in the 20th century. The social disasters that they
Andriy PAVLYSHYN
suffered have adversely affected the way the society perceives various events and news, the historical circumstance, which should be taken into account by journalists when they prepare their
Anatomy of an honest person is such that when their eyes are open, their mouth does not shut up!
materials. Despite this, attempts should be made to improve both one’s own self, and the audience.
October 29, 2011
The School’s third day was dedicated to journalistic investigations. Oleh KHOMENOK, Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Regional Press Development, began his three-hour training with definition of the investigation subject as socially important information. This was followed by description of such main features of a journalist investigation as involvement of many sources, discovery of violaOleh KHOMENOK
tions in legislation, existence of a clear plan, legal support and documental testimonies, use of expert
opinions, multi-sidedness and objectivity. In addition, various methods of how the publication results can be used were considered (partially and fully), as well as the
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methods of work with sources. Mr Khomenok also provided the participants with a list of useful reference to various state authorities, which essentially simplify the information search, as well as help during an investigation.
The participants looked into the basic investigation plan which includes such stages as selection of the topic, development of a hypothesis, prior assessment of the topic prospects, development of the investigation roadmap and its implementation, systematisation of the information received, a key interview, article drafting, page makeup/editing, pre-publication legal expertise, publication, and archiving.
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The topic was continued by Dmytro DOBRODOMOV, General Producer of the ZIK Channel, author and presenter of the Who’s Living Here? programme of journalistic investigations. The participants visited the ZIK TV studio where they were able to see the journalists’ workshop and learn the methods of efficient TV channel management. Mr Dobrodomov told the history of how the channel was established, its main projects, including the most popular ones, like Who’s Living Here?, Domino, 2012 Object, All Truth about EURO! etc. In addition, the General Producer spoke about the cooperation with the public through the Your ViDmytro DOBRODOMOV sion project, where people can make their own video and create the information message for the TV channel. Mr Dobrodomov also shared with the journalists the principles of his channel were based on, the methods used to get information and to work with it.
In the evening, the journalists met Olha KULYK, PR and Media Director of the !FEST Holding of Emotions. She told the participants how the concept for the Kryivka restaurant and other !FEST facilities, having noted that Kryivka is a sort of the mockery over the image of Lviv as an exclusively Ukrainian speaking city. Olha KULYK
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October 30, 2011
On the final session day, Denys KOVRYZHENKO, Legal Programmes Director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, presented an overview of the issues related to combating corruption in Ukraine. The expert considers that political corruption is primary in relation to the administrative corruption, and therefore political corruption should become the primary target. Mr Kovryzhenko listed the folDenys KOVRYZHENKO mediaschool.parlament.org.ua
lowing measures needed to overcome corruption:
strengthening of political party competition, decrease of dependence of political parties on financial donors, introduction of efficient monitoring and control, publication of reports on financial support of political parties. Mr Kovryzhenko believes that fight against corruption in Ukraine is complicated because the election legislation in Ukraine is not coordinated with the political party legislation. Mr Kovryzhenko noted that administrative corruption can be weakened by decreasing direct contacts between officials and citizens (through introduction of electronic systems for reporting, registration, payments etc). It would also be useful to introduce the so called «whistle-blowers» into the system, as people who signal violations of the legislation and abuse of power. Despite of the attempts made, this system has not yet been introduced in Ukraine. It is also important to prevent the conflict of interest in public authorities by establishing a requirement for civil servants to submit declarations on their assets and interests, which will oblige officials to abstain from actions resulting in the conflict of interest.
Denys KOVRYZHENKO: «Corruption is mirroring the society. When one fourth of the population lives behind
the poverty line, they have no time to think about high topics, such as development of the society or other things. Trying to satisfy their basic needs, they promote corruption already at their own level. The studies show that the level of corruption is an indicator of the public trust. The less is the trust, the higher is the corruption. Only 20% of people in Ukraine trust each other.».
The final presentation was made by Vasyl MASYUK, Galmedia Director, who spoke about efficient media management. Basing on his own experience, the lecturer presented a plan of how one’s own product can be created and how money can be earned in the media. The expert believes that the migration of values is currently taking
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place in the media, when printed information is losing its value, and the new value is not in the essence of the information, but in the form of its presentation. He explained the Galmedia success by the fact that its projects are earning for themselves. Mr Masyuk considers that receipt of profit
Vasyl MASYUK
should be used as a strong motivation behind creation of one’s own product, but the readers’ interests should not be forgotten at the same time.
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The New Ukraine School of Professional Journalism is an educational and networking project, it is a platform for communication between professional journalists aimed at the interchange of information, experience, ideas and innovations, as well as at extending knowledge and skills in different genres. Prominent attention is paid to expansion of horizons and promotion of values, as well as personal development of journalists. The program includes 60% of general topics (politics, economics, fighting corruption, education, environment protection, medicine, culture etc.) and 40% of professional educational topics (freedom of speech, media business, new media, journalistic investigations, PR in media etc.). The curriculum includes lectures, discussions, trainings, role plays, and round tables where Ukrainian and foreign experts, civil and political activists will act as moderators, trainers, lecturers. Trainers and lecturers are the leading Ukrainian and foreign public and political figures, journalists, experts and scientists. Among the school speakers in previous years were: Oleksandr Bohutsky (Director of the International Commercial Television and Radio company "ICTV"), Yulia Mostova (Deputy editor-in-chief of "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia" newspaper), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on freedom of speech and information), Dariia Chepak (Press secretary of President of Ukraine), Natalia Lyhachova (Editor-inchief of "Telekritika" project), Oleksandr Martynenko (General Director of “Interfax-Ukraine” Information Agency), Andriy Kulykov (Presenter of "the Freedom of speech" programme), Yehor Soboliev (Coordinator of “Svidomo” Independent
Contacts:
Bureau of investigative journalism), Bjoern Erichsen (Former director of televi-
Ihor KOHUT, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives kohut@laboratory.kiev.ua
sion department of the European Broadcasting Union), Herhard Gnauck (Correspondent of "Die Welt" newspaper in Warsaw), William Horsley (Representative of free Media Association of European Journalists, Chairman of the British Section of the Association of European Journalists) and many others. Successful candidates should: be practicing journalists; have an active life position and demonstrate leader qualities; be able to use the knowledge acquired for the benefit of the society; be under 35 years old; represent different kinds of media. There is also the Alumni Conference which aim is to support alumni network of journalists. Annual meetings bring the opportunity for communication of different
Oleksandr SYNIOOKY Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives oleksandr@laboratory.kiev.ua Natalya MATVIIENKO, Project Coordinator natalya@laboratory.kiev.ua Mariia KOVAL Project Manager info@laboratory.kiev.ua
years alumni. Moreover, alumni are involved into other activities of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives: conferences, round tables and clubs of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies, training programs on personal development. The New Ukraine School of Professional Journalism was set up by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Galyna TYSHCHENKO Project Assistant galyna@laboratory.kiev.ua Tel.: (+38 044) 531 37 68 For letters: mail box No. 20 Kyiv, 04070, Ukraine
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