Ukrainian journalists carve out new niche in Germany

Greifswald, Germany, April 22 (AFP/APP): Two months ago, Roksana Panashchuk was working as a freelance journalist in Ukraine. Now, she’s a refugee in Germany, closely watching events back home from the northeastern city of Greifswald.

“The situation is tough, of course, but everyone is doing what they can,” she told AFP.

“Soldiers are fighting, volunteers are distributing food and ammunition” — and journalists are “telling the truth… about what’s going on” in Ukraine.

Panashchuk is working as a coordinator for a network of Ukrainian journalists at home and abroad funded and organised by the German magazine Katapult, which specialises in statistics and social scientific studies.

The project is one of many such initiatives that have sprung up in Germany since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The RTL network has launched a daily TV show hosted by Ukrainian presenter Karolina Ashion, one of more than 300,000 Ukrainians who have found refuge in Europe’s biggest economy.

In Berlin, the daily Tagesspiegel newspaper has also decided to open its doors to Ukrainian and Russian journalists by offering them work space and a monthly wage.

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