The war in Ukraine is also being played out in the field of information, in the face of the lies of Russian propaganda. the Independent Kyiv, a Ukrainian media in the English language, was founded at the end of 2021 for the sake of independence in a country where many media are linked to oligarchs. Overnight, after the Russian invasion on February 24, all journalists turned into war reporters. Their mission is now to tell the horror of this conflict, to bear witness to the resilience of Ukrainians, while reporting the facts seriously.
“Logbook of the Ukrainian Resistance” (Ed. Nouveau Monde, 19.90 euros) brings together dozens of testimonies from Ukrainians, which make it possible to understand the extent of Russian abuses. On the occasion of the release of this book, most of the royalties for which will go to the editorial staff of the newspaper (24 people), L’Express met Alexander Query, a French journalist who is a member of the Independent Kyiv. He explains why he chose to stay in Ukraine, and to continue to do his job despite the risks. Maintenance.
L’Express: Created at the end of last year, the Independent Kyiv is of the few independent media of the oligarchs in Ukraine. How was he born?
Alexander Query: To understand this story, we must first remember that the Ukrainian media landscape is largely in the hands of oligarchs. Let’s go back a bit. The ancestor of Independent Kyivthe Kyiv Post, was bought in 2018 by a Syrian billionaire who made his fortune in real estate: Adnan Kiva. And visiting the offices, he found nothing better to say to us than: “silence is golden”. A rather unexpected motto for a newspaper, isn’t it? By getting his hands on this respected media, created in 1995, he was no doubt seeking to heal his reputation. Problem, he intended to launch a Ukrainian version, with an editor-in-chief that we guessed at his boot. We knew that the editorial line was going to pass under the control of Adnan Kiva. To protect ourselves, we tried to establish a sort of editorial committee to guarantee the independence of the newspaper and its Ukrainian version. Result, on November 8, 2021, we received a call in the newsroom telling us that we were all fired – I had joined the newspaper 2 years earlier.
It seemed important to us to maintain an English newspaper in Ukraine – it was the only one at the time, and it was a kind of reference. This is why we created the Independent Kyivwith exactly the same editorial team as the Kyiv Post. At the beginning, I was an economic journalist. Then, after the night of February 24, and the start of the invasion of Russia, we all became war reporters.
In this context of war, can one exercise his profession as a journalist objectively?
We are not tempted to hide information or to accentuate others. But in my opinion, not all words are created equal. The Kremlin’s propaganda and Ukraine’s overflow of communication cannot be put on the same plane. Ukraine’s strategy has been quite clear from the start: the more opaque the Kremlin, the more Ukraine seeks to be transparent, even if it means going a bit too far sometimes. This communication strategy is quite profitable. Because if the Westerners are a little tired of this war, this is not the case for the Ukrainians.
For me, there are not so many dilemmas about how to process information. I sincerely believe that you have to do your job with integrity and ethics. And follow the model of the Munich Ethics Charter, dating from 1971. But I don’t believe in journalistic objectivity, absolute neutrality does not exist. Every journalist works with his personal prism, his personal experience. Our “cause” is still the survival of Ukraine!
Today, Ukraine still faces the brutal invasion of its territory and untold abuses: I have absolutely no problem showing how monstrous the Russians are. The Russians use the words “liberation” of the territories or “special operation”. We at the newspaper talk about “occupation” and “war”.
How has the work of your newspaper evolved since the start of the war?
Today, the newspaper’s priority is to cover the war. People also want to know what’s happening as they happen, hour by hour. That’s part of what we offer. More reports. Our reading medium today is the website. Twitter helped a lot: we went from 30,000 subscribers to 2 million in one week. This pushes us to be even more responsible with regard to what we write.
Have you asked yourself the question of leaving Ukraine?
I’m staying there, in kyiv, I don’t want to leave. The question arose more at the beginning. There were doubts, hesitations, especially on the question of security. After 10 days in kyiv, with my partner – Ukrainian -, I said to myself that we had to leave.
During the first week of the war, we did not know how to react. Today we have reflexes: for example, we always keep a bag with things in case we have to leave in a hurry. We now know how to live with warning sirens. I asked myself the question of leaving kyiv, but there was no question for me of leaving Ukraine.
Today, this is where the history of Europe is being written. That’s where you have to be when you’re a journalist. And then, you don’t leave a country you love in times of war.
What report has touched you the most since the beginning of the war?
I was touched by a set of testimonials. Makariv, northwest of kyiv, it stirred me. It is one of the cities which were partly occupied by the Russians, west of kyiv – like Irpin and Boutcha – and which has been repeatedly bombed. They failed to take this strategic city for access to kyiv, but what they left behind, there too, is absolutely terrifying. These are common falsehoods, rapes, torture… It’s one thing to read it in the newspapers, it’s another thing to experience it, to hear it.
There was also northern Kharkiv. What struck me was the smell of death, which is quite indescribable. Going up to the north of Kharkiv, it’s everywhere. The Russians leave the corpses behind. Sometimes the corpses of their own soldiers – some are even mined… The further east you go, the more horror you sink into. And we realize that there is no limit to the horrors that the Russians inflict on the Ukrainians. And that needs to be told.