Since the 2004 Orange Revolution, Ukrainian media have provided a number of Russian journalists an alternative place to continue their career, whether they were looking for a comparatively free and pluralistic media space, a new job, or safety. The number of Russian media professionals in Ukraine increased in the subsequent years. Euromaidan and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by Russia’s military intervention in Donbas, have contributed to decisions to move or extend their stay in Ukraine. However, these events have also complicated the position of Russian journalists in Ukraine.
This paper seeks to explore the challenges connected with being a Russian journalist and working in Ukraine-based media during Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. This population of migrant media workers has arrived from an aggressor country, where mainstream media have been producing manipulative anti-Ukrainian discourse. They are diverse in terms of social backgrounds and migration histories, but mostly are qualified and experienced professionals. They do not form a tightly knit migrant community, and do not work for media outlets targeting such a community. This article addresses the experiences of a number of these media personalities, drawing upon a series of interviews conducted in late 2015, and open source materials. I argue that the Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, and the ongoing conflict have had a significant impact on Russian migrant journalists in Ukraine, by providing a migration context, influencing their work ethics and making them particularly sensitive to the ideas of responsibility and journalistic subjectivity.
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Katerina Sergatskova, “Has Ukraine become more dangerous for journalists than Russia?”, Moscow Times, 27 July 2016, available at https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/has-ukraine-become-more-dangerous-for-journalists-than-russia-54741, accessed 27 July 2016.
Katya Gorchinskaya, “The rise of Kremlin-style trolling in Ukraine must end”, Guardian, 27 July 2016, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/kremlin-style-troll-attacks-are-on-the-rise-in-ukraine-hromadske, accessed 27 July 2016; Sergatskova, “Has Ukraine become more dangerous for journalists than Russia?”.
Tanya Bednarczyk, “The Assassination Of Pavel Sheremet: ‘Investigative Journalism Has A Huge Role To Play Here’”, Hromadske International, 26 July 2016, available at http://en.hromadske.ua/articles/show/Assasination_Pavel_Sheremet_Investigative_Journalism_Has_Huge_Role_Play_Here, accessed 1 August 2016.
Charles Husband, “Minority Ethnic Media As Communities Of Practice: Professionalism and Identity Politics in Interaction”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31, no. 3 (May 2005): 472.
See also Annukka Vainio, “Beyond research ethics: anonymity as ‘ontology’, ‘analysis’ and ‘independence’”, Qualitative Research 13, no. 6 (2012): 685–698; Will C. Van Den Hoonaard, “Is anonymity an artifact in ethnographic research?”, Journal of Academic Ethics 1, no. 2 (2003): 141–151.
Olya Meshcheryakova, “Mne davno pora bylo napisat…”, Facebook, 29 August 2016, available at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1171037249626614&set=a.213506248713057.52665.100001610497087&type=3&theatre, accessed 29 August 2016.
Mark Deuze, “Ethnic media, community media and participatory culture”, Journalism, 7, no. 3 (2006): 262–280; Husband “Minority Ethnic Media As Communities Of Practice”; Annabelle Sreberny, “‘Not Only, But Also’: Mixedness and Media”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31, no. 3 (2005): 443–459.
Alicia Ferrández Ferrer, “Sobre la experiencia laboral de los periodistas migrantes en un contexto de desregulación: entre la precariedad y la democratización del campo mediático/On the work experience of migrant journalists in a context of deregulation: between precariousness and media field democratization”, Comunicación Y Sociedad, 25, no. 2 (2012): 305–330; Heike Graf, “Examining ethnicity in German newsrooms”, in: Heike Graf ed., Diversity in theory and practice: news journalists in Sweden and Germany (Göteborg: Nordico, 2011): 121–147; Eugenia Markova and Sonia McKay, “Migrant workers in Europe’s media: Recruitment and employment”, Journalism Practice, 7, no. 3 (2013): 282–299; Anne-Katrin Arnold and Beate Schneider, “Communicating separation? Ethnic media and ethnic journalists as institutions of integration in Germany”, Journalism, 8, no. 2 (2007): 115–136.
Sergii Leshchenko, “The two worlds of Viktor Yanukovych’s Ukraine”, openDemocracy Russia, 14 March 2013, available at https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/sergii-leshchenko/two-worlds-of-viktor-yanukovych%E2%80%99s-ukraine, accessed 30 March 2016.
Gorchinskaya, “The rise of Kremlin-style trolling in Ukraine must end”; Sergatskova, “Has Ukraine become more dangerous for journalists than Russia?”; “Shrinking space for journalism in Russia and Ukraine”, Index on Censorship, 26 August 2016, available at https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2016/08/shrinking-space-journalism-russia-ukraine/, accessed 29 August 2016.
Ferrández Ferrer, “Sobre la experiencia laboral”; Graf, “Examining ethnicity in German newsrooms”; Sreberny, “‘Not Only, But Also’: Mixedness and Media”; see also Anne Johnston and Dolores Flamiano, “Diversity in Mainstream Newspapers from the Standpoint of Journalists of Color”, Howard Journal of Communications, 18, no. 2 (2007): 111–131; Richard Shafer, “What minority journalists identify as constraints to full newsroom equality”, Howard Journal of Communications, 4, no. 3 (1993): 195–208.
Aihwa Ong, “Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial and Cultural Boundaries in the United States”, Current Anthropology, 37, no. 5 (1996): 738.
Yasemin Nuhoğlu Soysal, Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994).
Meshcheryakova, “Mne davno pora bylo napisat…”; “Zhurnalist, rabotavshiy so Shchetininym: Dumayu, chto Sasha vse-taki sam zastrelilsya”, Gordon.ua, 28 August 2016, available at http://gordonua.com/news/localnews/zhurnalist-rabotavshiy-so-shchetininym-dumayu-chto-sasha-vse-taki-sam-zastrelilsya-147451.html, accessed 28 August 2016.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
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Since the 2004 Orange Revolution, Ukrainian media have provided a number of Russian journalists an alternative place to continue their career, whether they were looking for a comparatively free and pluralistic media space, a new job, or safety. The number of Russian media professionals in Ukraine increased in the subsequent years. Euromaidan and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by Russia’s military intervention in Donbas, have contributed to decisions to move or extend their stay in Ukraine. However, these events have also complicated the position of Russian journalists in Ukraine.
This paper seeks to explore the challenges connected with being a Russian journalist and working in Ukraine-based media during Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. This population of migrant media workers has arrived from an aggressor country, where mainstream media have been producing manipulative anti-Ukrainian discourse. They are diverse in terms of social backgrounds and migration histories, but mostly are qualified and experienced professionals. They do not form a tightly knit migrant community, and do not work for media outlets targeting such a community. This article addresses the experiences of a number of these media personalities, drawing upon a series of interviews conducted in late 2015, and open source materials. I argue that the Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, and the ongoing conflict have had a significant impact on Russian migrant journalists in Ukraine, by providing a migration context, influencing their work ethics and making them particularly sensitive to the ideas of responsibility and journalistic subjectivity.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 448 | 64 | 7 |
Full Text Views | 172 | 1 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 40 | 4 | 0 |