Supporting Ukrainian journalists to ensure independent and balanced coverage of the war
Related project
Yak VdomaOn 23 November 2023, Thierry Vallat, Chairman and Managing Director of CFI, Marie Christine Saragosse, CEO of France Médias Monde and Jean-Marc Four, Managing Director of RFI, inaugurated their "Central and Eastern Europe" regional centre in Bucharest, Romania.
These new premises, which boast cutting-edge equipment, are now home to RFI's Ukrainian and Romanian editorial offices, the local branch of ENTR, an information site offered to young Europeans in eight languages, and Yak Vdoma, CFI's centre for Ukrainian journalists in exile.
At Yak Vdoma there are no sirens and no
"It is easier to write about the war and about conditions in Ukraine from outside the country as you can provide a more accurate analysis when not personally confronted by the situation," explains one of the Ukrainian journalists benefiting from Yak Vdoma, who Thierry Vallat, Chairman and Managing Director of CFI, met in Bucharest.
Yak Vdoma offers Ukrainian journalists affected by the war a favourable environment in which to continue to provide coverage of the conflict independently and safely by providing them with accommodation, an allowance to cover their living costs, a shared workplace and personalised support aimed at both boosting their journalistic skills and ensuring their psychological well-being.
Daria Verenova, Business Editor of the "24 Channel" website, is among those developing an initiative at the centre. She devotes her time to identifying foreign companies operating in Russia and denouncing them as financial backers of the war against Ukraine. Sitting opposite her in Yak Vdoma's open-plan office, journalist Oksana Baldina has been working for several months on documenting the Ukrainian women who have fled the Russian invasion with their children and producing YouTube videos to tell their stories and highlight their desire to return to Ukraine.
A few desks away, Tetiana Shevchenko is busy investigating the occupied and liberated territories, highlighting the forced Russification of Ukrainian populations in these regions. A total of eight editorial projects are currently under way.
Yak Vdoma is in keeping with CFI's mission of combating misinformation and defending the freedom to provide information. In the year since it opened, Yak Vdoma has hosted more than 30 journalists for residences of between 3 weeks and 6 months, with the vast majority of those hosted being highly skilled and experienced female journalists.
