Donbass Media Forum, Svyatohirsk, 2017. Source: DMF. More details on the forum here. When armed conflict broke out in Ukraine’s Donbass in spring 2014, many Donetsk journalists found themselves on the frontline by chance. Some of the city’s editorial offices changed their addresses, while others had to close down their operations entirely. Other editors and journalists have stayed in their profession, but are now bound by the demands made by the new rulers of Donetsk and Luhansk. Since the beginning of the “Russian Spring,” the new authorities’ main rule of thumb has been to suppress independent media. Indeed, there are no local journalists in the Donbas whose fates did not change after April 2014. In order to figure out what’s become of our profession in the region — and to retain our ties — we’ve been holding the Donbass Media Forum for several years now.
Facing aggression from the authorities of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic,” the editorial staff of the News of Donbas left Donetsk in small groups. Our first reaction to this situation was: we need to tell the truth about what’s happening in Donetsk, and the truth about those people who had suddenly declared a republic in our region. In our broadcasts for Donbas Public Television, we shed light on the “DNR” and its leaders, in order to inform as many people as possible about the situation.
At some point, I started receiving invitations to appear on every TV programme imaginable, as an “expert on the Donbas”. On air, I’d hear the same information which I’d published elsewhere. It seemed as though some media outlets weren’t interested in my knowledge of the current situation, but instead my interpretation of information which I’d been collecting since 2006, and my status as a witness in a criminal case into the activities of the “Donetsk Republic” organisation, which was banned in 2007.
