A press briefing on the occasion of the launch of the new media project focusing on Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia. (source: Memo 98)
With more than 107,000 Ukrainian refugees living in Slovakia, UNESCO has announced that it will support Slovak media in providing the refugees with reliable news and information in Ukrainian.
At the same time, these outlets will fight the stereotypes about Ukrainians that are circulating in Slovak society. The organisation hopes that the media, to a degree, will contribute to the integration of refugees into society in this way.
“News organisations hold the means to counter suspicion, fear, and social stigmas,” said UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Tawfik Jelassi.
Apart from Slovakia, the international organisation will also help the media in Romania and Moldova.
Cooperation with Deutsche Welle
The media in all three countries will cooperate with Deutsche Welle Akademie, international experts and national partners (Memo 98 in Slovakia), on the creation of refugee-related media outputs.
Alina Graffyová, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian-language Novyny.sk website, believes that it is crucial for Ukrainians to have access to news in their mother language. It means a lot to them, she continues.
“You understand that you are not alone,” says Graffyová.
The one-year project, which will end next January, is supported by the Japanese government. Head of the Migration Office Ján Orlovský has also welcomed the project, as it can help people in Slovakia receive objective information about migration.
“Almost nobody in Slovakia knows that so far, the war in Ukraine has cost us only €11 per citizen,” Orlovský said, hoping that this information will reach more Slovaks in the near future.
