From left to right: Professor Mario Murillo, Volodymyr Tsyalkovsky, Tsvetelina Sokolova, Sylwia Czubkowska, Mădălin Necșuțu and Scott Brinton. // Molly Botros / The Hofstra Chronicle.
Hofstra University’s Day of Dialogue, organized by the Center for Civic Engagement on Oct. 26, featured a series of discussions centered around current events. One of the talks, a panel called “Eastern European Journalism at a Crossroads,” was moderated by Scott Brinton, professor of journalism, and Mario Murillo, vice dean of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication and professor of radio, television and film, shifted the discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war to a journalistic lens.
The panel featured three leading Eastern European journalists who are partaking in a program on “Reporting Complexity” and the founder of Ukrainian Americans of Long Island. Mădălin Necșuțu, who is Romanian, is the correspondent for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Sylwia Czubkowska, from Poland, is the managing editor of Spider’s Web+. Tsvetelina Sokolova is an editor at the Bulgarian Mediapool.bg, and Volodymyr Tsyalkovsky is the technology specialist at Wolters Kluwer & Volunteer and the community liaison at Ukrainian Americans of Long Island.
With tens of thousands of people dead, millions displaced and infrastructure toppling, the impact of the Russian invasion in Ukraine is that it has cast a shadow of fear over the future of democracy and has caused a ripple effect of economic dismay. Journalism has played a critical role in unveiling corruption and human rights abuses.
Czubkowska noted that “being a journalist in Poland is like being a journalist in any other Western country.” However, “now is the best time to be a journalist because of the will of the people to incite change,” she said.
Journalists throughout Eastern Europe have played a critical role in combating concealed corruption. Necșuțu, currently reporting in Moldova, shared what it is like to be a journalist in an Eastern European state. He cited issues with mainstream media being bought out.
Sokolova discussed how donors can shift the media perspective to their cause; for example, propagandistic, pro-Russian websites fueled the debate between Western and Russian ideology. Advocacy journalism, according to Sokolova, threatens journalistic integrity and validity. Because journalism lacks regulation in Bulgaria, journalists who are entrenched in both the journalistic and the citizen role can find themselves reporting on the same events for which they personally attend protests. According to Sokolova, professional journalism means distinguishing between bias and objectivity.
Brinton prompted the panelists to reflect on the American reporting of the war. Tsyalkovsky stated that there was a heightened focus on the escalation during Feb. 2021 when the invasion of Ukraine was still a new issue. After the full-scale invasion from Russia, various narratives entered the public domain from “kitchen-table discussions to more analytical research pieces down to investigative journalism,” according Tsyalkovsky. He stressed the criticality of continuing this narrative in all avenues of discussion.
Katerina Fakinos, a writing studies major and political science minor, described how the focus of the invasion by the American public was substantial at the onset of the war. However, as the issue grew decreasingly novel, Fakinos said that the support by Americans “has boiled down to a Ukrainian flag sticker.”
Paul Fritz, associate professor of political science, noted that media coverage specific to the war in Ukraine is no different from media coverage in other wars.
“There is clearly an aggressor,” Fritz said. According to Fritz, the luxury of debate is assumed by those removed enough from the attack that it is not a pressing threat.
Unlike the united pro-Euro-Atlantic front presented against Russia from other Eastern European countries, Bulgaria offers a different perspective. Sokolova discussed a Eurobarometer survey that was published in May, stating that nearly 25% of Bulgarians do not feel sympathy for Ukrainians. This is explained by anti-Western sentiment, as opposed to a pro-Russian attitude.
When democratic opposition groups were interviewed by Sokolova, who approached the matter open-mindedly, he stated that it became evident their view emerged from disagreement with liberal policies like open immigration and globalized economics.