New Pathway – Ukrainian News
On May 19-20, in New York City, the Association of Ukrainian Journalists of North America held its 2023 annual conference.
The conference took place at a particularly crucial moment as journalists in Ukraine come under increasing threat, as the media sector reels from a collapse in revenue and loss of talent due to the war – and as Russian misinformation is on an alarming upswing.
Dozens of Ukrainian and other journalists from Canada, U.S., Europe, and Ukraine in attendance benefited from insightful presentations, discussions, and networking. The conference helped establish stronger connections between Ukrainian journalists and their colleagues in mainstream media.
In the beginning, the conference attendants were treated to an exquisite tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the curators and consultants presented masterpieces by Ukraine-related artists such as Illia Repin or Arhyp Kuindzhi. These works recently saw their labels change to remove mentions of the artists’ as “Russian“ and account for the fact that the artists were born in Ukraine and immersed in Ukrainian culture and artistic themes.
The conference followed with presentations from such prominent journalists and experts as:
Natalia Sedletska, Ukrainian investigative reporter; Head of “Schemes” – RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service investigative department: Identifying positivity in the current environment;
Laura Ballman, an expert on cultural property in times of war, and Sarah Kerr, a reporter and producer in the video unit at The New York Times: The Cultural Toll of Russia’s Invasion;
Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of Office of the President of Ukraine: #BeBraveLikeUkraine: Kyiv vs. the Kremlin;
Amb. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations: How we were ‘Be Brave Like Ukraine’ during 400+ days of war in the UN;
Teri Schultz – Freelance Brussels Correspondent, NPR/DW: Finland and NATO – efforts to counter disinformation;
Helena Lins, Reporter, CNN Portugal; and Kristina Hook, Assistant Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management: European Perspective: covering the Ukraine war;
and Roman Badanin, the founder and editor-in-chief of Proekt and Agentstvo: Journalism vs. the Kremlin.
The conference’s venue was the outstanding Ukrainian Institute of America on Central Park East in New York City. The Institute occupies one of the grandest turn-of-the-century structures in New York City: the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, designed by famed, Gilded-Age architect C.P.H. Gilbert in his signature French-Gothic Style. As one of the premier Ukrainian cultural hubs on the continent, the UIA provided the conference with an ideal environment for presentations and discussions, especially the ones on how Russia has used the war to commit cultural genocide.
NP-UN will cover the conference in more detail in the upcoming issues.
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