Tackling Ukraine’s leaders over the issues affecting 1.7million displaced
Regional journalists in Ukraine have had a rare chance to challenge government officials over the plight of the country’s internally displaced.
As a result, education officials have agreed to examine the problems faced by displaced students who have had their rent subsidies cut.
The regional journalists took a series of issues to the centre of government in the capital, Kyiv, as part of a training programme run by the Thomson Foundation and the International Institute for Regional Media and Information, Irmi. They started by attending hearings at national parliament building into the country’s internally-displaced persons (IDPs).
Around 1.7million have fled their homes in Crimea and the eastern Donbass region, where conflict still continues between the Ukrainian government and Russian separatists.
During the parliamentary hearings, the regional journalists were able to observe the debate and tackle some of the issues raised by interviewing MPs, IDPs and representatives from humanitarian organisations such as the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
The regional television journalists are being trained as part of Regional Voices, a programme run by the Thomson Foundation looking at how to produce stories showing the human cost of the IDP crisis, as a way of helping to defuse tensions caused by the problem.
As a result, education officials have agreed to examine the problems faced by displaced students who have had their rent subsidies cut.
The regional journalists took a series of issues to the centre of government in the capital, Kyiv, as part of a training programme run by the Thomson Foundation and the International Institute for Regional Media and Information, Irmi. They started by attending hearings at national parliament building into the country’s internally-displaced persons (IDPs).
Around 1.7million have fled their homes in Crimea and the eastern Donbass region, where conflict still continues between the Ukrainian government and Russian separatists.
During the parliamentary hearings, the regional journalists were able to observe the debate and tackle some of the issues raised by interviewing MPs, IDPs and representatives from humanitarian organisations such as the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
Regional TV journalists are being trained as part of Regional Voices, a project looking at how to produce stories showing the human cost of the IDP crisis
The regional television journalists are being trained as part of Regional Voices, a programme run by the Thomson Foundation looking at how to produce stories showing the human cost of the IDP crisis, as a way of helping to defuse tensions caused by the problem.
Many students who left their homes in Crimea and Donbass have enrolled in universities in the cities where they now live in an attempt to continue their education. But they told the journalists that they have incurred large debts after their subsidised rents were withdrawn.
When challenged during the Regional Voices workshop, the officials from the Ministry of Education and Science agreed to examine the issue.
At the end of the week-long Kyiv television workshop, each participating journalist was able to produce a high-impact and balanced report for broadcast on her television station and online.
There are further broadcast workshops planned for other regional centres in Ukraine in 2016.
The Regional Voices project is an 18-month EU-funded initiative, implemented by the Media Consortium of five organisations: Thomson Foundation, Institute of Regional Media and Information (IRMI), MEMO 98, Association Spilnyi Prostir (ASP) and The European Journalism Centre, in close co-operation with local partners, including Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists.
