The INDEX community was pleased to take part in the LAMPA Conversation Festival in Cēsis on June 20. The visit was supported by Robert Bosch Stiftung. The participants were:
— Daria Badior is a Kyiv-based cultural critic, the editor-in-chief of re/visions, journalist at Suspilne, and co-founder of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine.
— Diana Deliurman is a journalist, photographer and Global Communications Manager at Lviv Media Forum.
— Dr Sasha Dovzhyk is a writer, head of INDEX, and editor-in-chief of the London Ukrainian Review.
— Natalie Nougayrède is a former editor-in-chief of Le Monde, member of The Guardian’s editorial board, INDEX Fellow, and currently editor of re/visions.
The discussion was moderated by Rita Ruduša, a prominent Latvian journalist and media expert, writer, and former public media executive.
The panellists talked about wartime stories from within Ukraine and their transformations abroad — how Russia’s war has shifted audience needs on multiple levels, and how it has changed language.
“I try to focus on the topics that are critical for audiences both within and outside of Ukraine. For example, the environment: Ukraine is currently suffering from Russia's ecocide, but it is also the country that has survived one of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophes, the explosion at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. So there are problems, but there are also coping mechanisms and resistance strategies that can be shared”, said INDEX’s Sasha Dovzhyk.
Daria Badior reflected on the topic of shame that people in Ukraine might feel for different reasons and in different contexts during wartime — for moving abroad, not doing enough or not donating enough for the army, not being on a battlefield — and how to negotiate it in storytelling.
Natalie Nougayrède stressed the importance of taking personal responsibility for the decisions we make when covering war — and on the editorial choices that come with it. She also shared insights on temporality from her stay in Ukraine during the INDEX fellowship in Lviv.
“When you live in Ukraine, you have a new understanding of the motion of time. Because you live with such extreme uncertainty, even in a place like Lviv, which is relatively safe. In general, when Ukrainians decide to do something, they are going to do it very quickly”, Natalie mentioned.
Diana Deliurman discussed the topic of mental health, sharing some personal tips on how to avoid burnout while working under constant physical and emotional pressure. She also touched on the ethics of working with sensitive content and the inner compass that helps define the boundaries of what journalists should and shouldn’t publish.
The livestream of the conversation is available on our Facebook page.
LAMPA is a two-day festival founded in 2015 with the mission to promote a culture of democratic dialogue in Latvia and to foster civic participation and active engagement in social and political life. Its home is the Cēsis Castle Park, and it draws inspiration from similar democracy festivals in Denmark, Sweden and Estonia. INDEX hopes that, one day, it will be possible to bring this democracy festival to Ukraine.
