NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION INDEPENDENT UNION OF EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS is a public association which is aimed to educate a new generation of European journalists in Ukraine. The Union brings together unbiased and worthy professionals in journalism who are enthusiastic to advance their skills to meet European standards of journalism.
Unfortunately, the overwhelming part of Ukrainian journalism today is a classic example of information terror, disorganization of the state, society and business structures, as well as misleading population of Ukraine. This kind of “journalism” is a threat to the national security and sovereignty of the state.
It is notorious that 90% of media in Ukraine do lobby interests of particular businessmen, public officials, and politicians who are the founders of these media or their ultimate beneficiaries. At the same time, there is a disturbing trend in Ukraine, which boils down to repetitious cases of threats, attacks, persecution and even physical altercation of journalists. We believe that the population of Ukraine has the right to receive objective information correlated to the activities of state structures, law enforcement agencies, senior officers, businesses and public structures.
For this reason, we set ourselves a following list of tasks:
- To protect journalists’ rights to freedom of speech and fight against violations of the right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression;
- Advance training of journalists
- To expand professional ties of Ukrainian journalists in EU countries;
- To take preventive actions of manifestations of the violation of the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of personal philosophy.
- To represent and protect the interests of members of the Organization before the state and local governments in various public institutions, organizations, and enterprises both in Ukraine and abroad, before private persons, media;
- To promote the interests of members of the Organization and their constitutional rights
- To organize public events: meetings, promotions, readings, research, etc.
- To carry out preventive work to prevent violations of the right to freedom of speech;
- To cooperate with media as well as in EU countries;
- To cooperate with human rights organizations and law enforcement agencies
- To raise awareness of the rights to freedom of speech;
- Collaborate and attract specialists for qualified assistance to support the legal and constitutional rights of members of the Organization;
- To organize consultations in the view of the violated rights of members of the Organization.
The priority task of UEJ is to create for each journalist his own perspective to develop as an individual, by means of the regular advancement training at the union in the form of public events, private lectures, personal counseling, and masterclasses.
One of the priorities of the UEJ is to develop the legislative framework, which will allow journalists-members of the union to carry out their journalistic duty without hindrance.
Our task is to ensure the interaction of UEJ members with practicing European experts, lawyers, journalists, political scientists, human rights activists. Our task is to develop international relations and communications with specialized organizations and experts, as well as to share experience and create new projects for the development of professional European journalism in Ukraine.
The ideological initiators are Willy Fautre and Myroslav Bekchyv. Brief information about the founders:
Willy Fautre is a professor and director of the Belgian human rights organization “Human Rights Without Frontiers”. He is a member of the International Consortium on Law and Religious Studies. Former mission commander in the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and in the Belgian Parliament. Willy Fautre has developed the promotion of religious freedom in European institutions, OSCE and the UN. He is a lecturer on freedom of religion, discrimination, and intolerance.
Myroslav Bekchyv is a Ukrainian journalist, member of the general committee of the Odessa Photographic Society, obtained his master’s degree from the National University of Odessa Maritime Academy. In September 2018, he spoke at the ODIHR conference in Warsaw on the violation of journalists’ rights. He organized a variety of conferences, seminars, and events for advanced training for journalists.
For applications to become a member of UEJ and other questions please contact us at:
Email: info@eunion.press
Phone: +380939986187
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