Representatives of the National Union of the Journalists of Ukraine, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine, and the Russian Union of Journalists attended the meeting, along with IFJ and EFJ representatives, the International Press Institute and Reporters without Borders.
“The meeting today centred on two countries, but one profession,” said Nadezhda Azhgikhina, Executive Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists. “This dialogue and the co-operation between the journalist unions will continue to pave the way for improving the situation for journalists in and around Ukraine.”
Sergey Tomilenko, Acting Chairman of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, said: “This dialogue maximizes our contribution to the issues at hand, safety of journalists in the east of Ukraine, countering and resisting propaganda and support to colleagues who suffered.”
With the action plan the journalists agreed, among other things, to create a group to monitor violations of journalists’ rights and to lobby publishers to provide special training in conflict reporting.
This was the second meeting between Ukrainian and Russian journalists under the auspices of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; the first one took place on 19 May 2014 in Vienna. The action plan is available at: http://www.osce.org/fom/120451
For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 17 The IFJ represents more than 600 000 journalists in 134 countries