RPT hosts Kyiv forum for Ukraine’s freelance journalists

The event will take place on Saturday, 22 September 2018 at Izone in Podil, Kyiv and marks the culmination of RPT’s two-year, UNDEF-funded project, supporting independent journalism in Ukraine.

Around 80 freelance journalists, government representatives, civil society organisations and international experts will gather to discuss and share best practice regarding the current situation for freelancers in Ukraine. All participants will be able to attend two of four small workshops, covering topics such as:

• Building Psychological Resilience, led by Gavin Rees, director of Dart Center Europe;
• Working on Long-term Documentary Projects with Service Personnel, led by Joseph Sywenkyj, documentary photographer;
• Verification of Information Online, led by Vitaliy Moroz, Head of New Media at Internews Ukraine;
• Risk Assessment: Practical Exercises before Dangerous Assignments, led by Iryna Zemlyana from IMI.

The event will also involve presentations by key speakers:

• Matthew Caruana Galizia is a journalist and software engineer, who co-founded ICIJ’s Data and Research Unit in 2014 and was a lead engineer on six major investigations: Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, Luxembourg Leaks, Fatal Extraction, Panama Papers and Paradise Papers. The Unit’s core work on the Panama Papers, which supported the investigations of hundreds of journalists worldwide, led to ICIJ winning the Pulitzer prize for explanatory reporting in 2017. He left the organisation in 2018 to continue working on the case around the assassination of his mother, Daphne Caruana Galizia.
• Guy Martin is a documentary photographer primarily interested in the way our digital lives have overlapped into the political violence of the physical world. He continues to work for the world’s leading magazines and newspapers while lecturing, teaching workshops and exhibiting his work worldwide. He is a member of Panos Pictures and is represented by Benrubi Gallery in NY. His first book The Parallel State will be published by GOST books in November 2018.

When registering, participants must specify if they will attend for the full day or only for the morning/afternoon panel discussions. Lunch will be provided to full-day attendees. Participation in this event is invite-only, and priority will be given to freelance journalists and media organisation representatives working with freelancers registered for the full day.

The forum’s working languages will be English and Russian with simultaneous interpretation. Follow the discussions on Twitter using the hashtag #freelancinginUkraine.