But the reality is that many who make these speeches of high praise are the ones who interfere with our jobs, do their best to hinder our work, deeply fear and disrespect our profession and ignore our exposure of corruption, nepotism, lawlessness and general lack of competency.
But money can’t buy what Ukraine’s journalists want: a major attitude shift in society, starting with the lowest ranking civil servants and politicians, up to the nation’s leaders.
We would like to stop being attacked by hired thugs during rallies that we are sent to report on. We would like the police to quit standing by as journalists get beaten and start to “serve and protect” the citizenry by cracking down on crimes. We would like them to follow up on such incidents with swift, thorough and professional investigations rather than with excuses.
We would like for media owners to start figuring out what editorial independence is: full newsroom control and judgment of what issues to cover or not to cover, who to hire and fire for professional reasons, and so on.
We would like government officials whose salaries are paid by taxpayers to serve the public, to stop brushing off our requests for information, and grant access to information that is of general public interest.
We would like the greatest reward of all: to see action based on the findings of our stories, be they about the suffering of orphans or high-level corruption related to presidential residences.
Much of our time is dedicated to reporting every day on the brutal violations of human rights, and it’s depressing enough. To see all that work come to nothing is even worse. Hopelessness is a feeling most journalists in Ukraine know a lot about. So, the gift of hope would be the best.
