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Media Expert’s Recommendations for Quality Coverage of Donbas Conflict

July 27Iryna Zemliana, a media expert and safety trainer for journalists, analyzed journalists’ work conditions in Ukraine’s eastern conflict areas for j-sos, the website for journalists’ safety, administered by the Institute of Mass Information. The military situation and media coverage conditions are changing, according to Zemliana.

She prepared a list of activities to facilitate improved media coverage of the Donbas conflict and enhance overall working conditions for journalists.

1. Organize training for military personnel who work directly with journalists. This will help build confidence between the Ukrainian military and reporters.

2. Focus coverage on frontline combat-prone areas in the Donbas. Journalists should prioritize their interests about how the Donbas war is affecting local residents’ lives and the resulting humanitarian challenges originating from the conflict.

3. Create more press centers to improve war coverage, such as the newly established center in Avdiyivka. After more than three years of war, Ukrainian Army officers, trained in working with journalists, are increasingly staffing military units. Cooperation between the Ukrainian military and journalists is improving in the Donbas conflict zone, but more progress is needed to facilitate better coverage of the war.

4. Promote and maintain dialogue between journalists and the Ukrainian military. This increases journalists’ confidence in covering the war zone and results in more informed reporting.

Photo credit: IMI, by Oleg Skrypnyk.

Read more on the Institute for Mass Information’s website in Ukrainian.