Why Journalism Matters
A life-affirming story about a newspaper in Ukraine that has survived against the odds, and a special thank you to our growing readership.
4 minute read
The courage of the local Ukrainian newspaper that continues to serve its readers even after their hometown has been destroyed
There is no doubt that we are coming to the end of a terrible and anxiety-ridden year for humanity. It started with the ongoing conflicts which killed many innocent civilians in Gaza,Sudan and Ukraine, conflicts that have carried on and indeed worsened over the year. And 2024 now comes to an end with the recent uncovering of mass graves in Syria in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime.
2025 does not hold the prospect of being any better. Cost of living, homelessness, armed conflict, civil unrest and climate change will continue to plague the world, creating even more hardship and uncertainty.
Looking for end-of-the-year inspiration is therefore a challenging and difficult task. But two qualities persist in the unfolding human story, no matter the troubles and painful events that surround us.
Those qualities are courage and resilience. Such qualities were made manifest in the lives of Russian opposition leader (and lest we forget a dynamic investigative journalist) Alexei Navalny who died in the harsh conditions of a Siberian prison in February, turning him into a martyr for the cause of freedom and democracy everywhere.
But there was also the quiet dignity of the battle for justice fought and won by Gisele Gisèle Pelicot in a court in Avignon in France, following the trial of her husband and 50 men whom he invited to rape her by enlisting them on the internet. She waived her right to anonymity in order to make ‘shame change sides’ from victim to the rapist and as a result has become a feminist icon around the world.
And as we reported in our last edition there are the cases of Nobel Peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi in Iran and newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. Both of them could have chosen exile to avoid imprisonment and abuse, but decided to stay and fight for what they believe in—against the authoritarian forces of suppression.
Cause of democracy
We salute all of these and the many more who have given their lives or are suffering torture and imprisonment in the cause of democracy, freedom of expression, and saving our environment. Their struggle has been for the straightforward right to know the truth about what happens in their societies and the world around them, a struggle important for us all.
So it is in that spirit of celebrating that ongoing struggle that we relate the story of the little local newspaper Vpered ( ‘Ahead’) published in Bakhmut, a small town in eastern Ukraine that refused to give up in the face of the Russian invasion which was followed by the ‘utter destruction’ of Bakhmut over an eight month period between 2022 and 2023.
Vpered has been published in the town since 1920 and remains cherished and trusted by the local population.
Now, thanks to its intrepid editor Svitlana Ovcharenko, Vpered continues to report on the town and its 80,000 citizens, now scattered across all parts of Ukraine—and the world—as a result of the Russian invasion .
As the Guardian reported in early December:”Ukrainian resistance turned this Donbas town into a byword for courage.”
After a months-long pause at the beginning of the war Vpered is now publishing again, printing 6,000 copies for distribution around Ukraine and across the diaspora in Europe and the world. It is also developing a website and social media presence to increase its availability.
Like many Ukrainians displaced from the Donbas and other eastern parts of the country now under Russian occupation, the people of Bakhmut are faced with the question: what will they do if they can never return home?
As Ovcharenko explained: “Bakhmut is not buildings or bricks, Bakhmut is people. Even though the town ceased to exist in physical form, it lives on in the community, in our paper.”
Losing hope
“Time is passing. People are getting more and more disappointed, losing hope. One of our main aims is to inspire people, encourage them, to stop waiting to return home and start living.”
After the invasion in 2022 Ovcharenko made what she thought would be a temporary escape to Odesa after hiding the newspaper’s heavier equipment in a garage. But over months she had to witness on social media both the destruction of her apartment block and the newspaper’s offices on Peace Street slowly reduced to rubble by Russian shelling.
Even after the virtual obliteration of Bakhmut, 20,000 residents remained hiding out in freezing basements, trapped by the war without realising that they had the option to flea to other parts of Ukraine where they would be welcomed.
“Bakhmutians trust Ahead, so I thought I needed to produce at least one edition of the paper where I could put in all the information, everything that happened over the last eight months,” Ovcharenko said.
“I needed to tell them: ‘The world knows about Bakhmut, buses can evacuate you, the Ukrainian government still exists and you will be helped – you can even go abroad.’ I looked for people who had already left who could share their stories.”
An important role for Vpered was to counter the pervasive propaganda produced by the Russians who tried to tell the remaining residents that Kyiv had fallen and the Ukrainian government no longer existed.
Trust local newspaper
(Vpered is now receiving support from the Swiss-based Fondation Hirondelle, a charity which supports media in countries suffering conflict or major crises. The foundation is supporting in more than 20 other communities in Ukraine. Vpered also gets help from Ukraine’s Institute for Regional Media and Information.)
Sabra Ayres is a mentor for the project as well as being a foreign correspondent based in Ukraine.
She explained: “People in frontline areas don’t trust things on Telegram [the social media platform], but they do know the team at their local paper, and they trust it,” said Sabra Ayres, a foreign correspondent based in Ukraine and media mentor on the project.
“If local media disappear, what can come in to take their place is Russian disinformation, and we have seen how that divides communities.”
Each edition tries to bring some hope for the future to its readers along with memories of thetown, its history and a remembrance of those who died during the battle to save it from the Russians.
In recent interviews Ovcharenko aired her thoughts about the future of Vpered and Bakhmut.
Ovcharenko said her aim is to ensure that she and readers “do not lose the feeling of being a Bakhmutian, do not forget who you are”, although she often struggles to find happiness or even motivation.
“We all live one day at a time – you don’t plan much for the future. And this is wrong, but this is our reality.”
“Maybe it does make sense to build another town, call it a new Bakhmut, elsewhere,” Ovcharnenko said. “On the other hand if they somehow rebuild Bakhmut in the old place, we would go back because it’s unique and special.”
Reference
Guardian report on Bakhmut newspaper
National Union of Journalists Ukraine report
2 minute read
Thank you for your continued interest and support in 2024!
Thank you for reading WJM this year, and may all our readers enjoy a happy and peaceful holiday.
WJM would especially like to thank our many new subscribers who have signed up over the past few months, and who continue to do so. WJM’s English edition is now read in 19 countries around the world while the French version has readers in 14 countries, including one in Ukraine, which is very gratifying.
I would also like to give special thanks to my translator and friend Elisabeth Jourdan-Magnien who volunteers her time and expertise selflessly, always showing great care and professionalism in her work. There is much significant investigative and campaigning journalism being done in the French-speaking world and we hope to showcase it more widely in the next year.
All of the organisations that we report on and champion would also appreciate your support, and if it’s possible for you to make a donation to any of them, it will make a major contribution to the preservation of press freedom around the world, along with the cause of investigative journalism in the public interest.
Among those organisations are Reporters sans frontières, Committee to Protect Journalists and the Global Investigative Journalism Network--including its many members across the globe.
We are taking a break until the week commencing January 13 2025. We look forward to rejoining our campaign for hearts and minds in the new year.
Once again, thanks for reading.
Ted Sullivan
Publisher and Editor
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