“Journalism and Volunteering is an Organic Combination”: Kherson Plus TV channel’s experience during Russian occupation and now

What is the problem?

Having captured the Ukrainian city of Kherson on March 1, 2022, the Russians deprived the citizens of many fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom of speech.

The occupiers paid a lot of attention to the mass media and, first of all, to television. "Already on March 2, the day after the occupation, they turned off all Ukrainian television, and a day later, on March 3, they launched Russian broadcast," says Volodymyr Kosyuk, director of the Kherson Plus TV channel.

They also broke into the channel's editorial office to capture journalists, but they, aware of the danger, were there for the last time on February 23, 2022. Not finding anyone, the Russians decided to rob the TV channel and took a lot of equipment from the editorial office.

When the Kherson Plus film crews tried to film the mass protests of Kherson residents against the Russian occupation on March 5 and 9, the Russians took away and destroyed two sets of television equipment.

"We realized that we can no longer work as before, in the format of television groups. Now, this, first of all, was dangerous for the lives of our people," Kosyuk shares with Rubryka.

At the same time, the cancellation of freedom of speech was not the only problem that Kherson faced after the occupation. The lack of food was much worse. There was no more bread in the city, almost all grocery stores were closed, and the markets did not work.

The situation was even worse in the villages in the suburbs of Kherson. People there stopped growing their own large gardens a long time ago, and one or two shops closed because they sold everything in the first days of the war. They had far fewer opportunities to find food than in the city if any at all.

"For the first 17 days, I stayed with my parents, 25 kilometers from Kherson. I saw what happened in the villages. People began to panic and starve," says Iryna Mezyentseva, the chief editor of the TV channel.

What is the solution?

Back in 2016, based on the Kherson Plus TV channel, the NGO Union of Journalists Alternatyva was created. Before the full-scale invasion, it was engaged in media projects. For example, in the winter of 2021-2022, journalists developed a selection of videos for officials of various levels to learn how to distinguish fakes and fight disinformation.

However, after the occupation, everything changed, and other challenges arose. Thus, at the first offline meeting on March 13, the journalists decided they would work more with texts instead of videos in the future. The journalists decided that if they filmed anything, they would do that only on the premises and by prior agreement, considering safety conditions.

At the same time, the channel's editor-in-chief, who lived in the village during the first days of the invasion, suggested changing the NGO's activities and starting to volunteer. Now, instead of working on journalistic projects, the team started delivering humanitarian aid.

How did it work during the occupation?

The volunteer activity of the Union of Journalists Alternatyva began with three boxes of humanitarian aid for channel employees. The food kit then consisted of potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. These were the only groceries Mezyentseva and Kosyuk could buy after standing in long lines in the cold.

"At first we helped only our editorial staff, and then I started telling and writing about what is happening in Kherson. People began to respond and offer to help in any way they could. That's when we realized that we need to go to another level," says the editor-in-chief of Kherson Plus.

The German-Ukrainian Feiburg Society was among the first to transfer a significant amount to the organization's accounts. This allowed the journalists' union to purchase more products from Kherson's wholesale warehouses — all that somehow remained. They bought exclusively Ukrainian products.

In the summer of 2022, international organizations began seriously supporting the NGO. The most significant support came from the team's permanent partners, Internews-Ukraine and the Eastern Europe Foundation, and the EU Representation in Ukraine, which helped through the Renaissance International Fund and the Institute of Economic Research and Political Consultations.

The volunteers started taking aid to the villages near Kherson. Sofiivka was the first, followed by other villages of the Stanislav community. Twice a week, buses came to them with tons of humanitarian aid, and approximately 100 families received food packages. Thus, by supporting Alternatyva, the EU was able to help Ukrainians in the occupation.

These kits mostly consisted of groats, macaroni, and flour, which were transported in bags. This type of transportation was important, as Russians could take away packaged products at checkpoints.

People on the ground helped pack and unload everything. When they saw the volunteer buses, they took the scales out of the store and lined up, waiting for their half-kilogram or kilogram of millet or pasta.

"Of course, no one brought sausages, pates, or canned goods — these would have been elite sets. When we managed to add squash spread and pate for the first time, people were shocked that they could eat normally," says Mezyentseva.

Also, over time, they managed to agree on baking bread. First, it was baked in one of Kherson's supermarkets while it was still working. When it closed, the organization made an agreement directly with the bakers and continued to bake bread in other places.

As the organization's volume of work grew, so did the number of volunteers, who now did not necessarily have to be associated with journalism.

Kosyuk stopped driving because it became dangerous. He is a journalist and director of a local TV channel, well-known to Russian-appointed officials and collaborators, so it was dangerous to constantly drive through Russian checkpoints. He continued to help, but with loading the cars.

Despite all the security risks, the team did even more than planned, actively building local partnerships, increasing their capacity, and uniting a network of volunteers around them. "In general, they proved themselves as a reliable partner. Their stability and position are impressive," says Viktoriia Stokratyuk, manager of the Civil Stability program of the Renaissance International Foundation.

The Renaissance Foundation, like other partners through which the EU provides support to Ukrainian civil society organizations, emphasizes that it is NGOs that are the drivers of European integration and qualitative changes. Therefore, they aim to consistently and comprehensively support them. Only in the second quarter of 2024, with the financial support of the EU, 56 grant projects for NGOs are operating in Ukraine, which provide funding of more than €101 million.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the EU has provided comprehensive support to Ukrainians — in particular, when it concerns the occupied communities, as confirmed by the case of the Union of Journalists Alternatyva

Kosyuk and Mezyentseva remember volunteering in the occupation in different ways. If the editor-in-chief says that it saved her—it made it possible for her to distract herself—then the director jokingly recalls how he carried 50-kilogram bags and how everything hurt after that.

At the same time, the team members of Alternatyva did not forget that they were journalists and continued to work in their profession. For example, the Voice of Occupied Kherson project was born, in which journalists told people's stories about life under occupation even before the city's liberation.

This series is made possible by a combination of journalism and volunteerism. When someone from the Kherson Plus team traveled with humanitarian aid, they could talk to people in the village and conduct an interview, and when they returned, they wrote texts based on this.

"Journalism and volunteering are really such inseparable things, and it's a very harmonious combination. I don't understand why we didn't do this earlier. Because when you go as a volunteer, you need feedback, just like a journalist needs feedback. In both cases, there are people with whom you communicate," says Mezyentseva.

How is it working now?

The Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated Kherson on November 11, 2022. Fleeing from the right-bank part of the region, the Russians destroyed the infrastructure necessary for people's lives, so many settlements were left without electricity, water, and heat. The occupiers also began shelling the Kherson region with tanks, as well as with salvo fire systems, drones, and missiles.

From December 2022 to today, Kherson has been experiencing daily shelling. In Kherson, the width of the Dnipro River is about the same as in Kyiv, which allows Russian tanks to come out, fire at the city, and leave, not even giving enough time for the air alarm to go off. "Unfortunately, there are victims and wounded almost every day in Kherson, and definitely wounded every day," says the director of the TV channel.

According to the latest data, the regional center, which was home to approximately 350,000 people before the invasion, now has a population of only 67,000. Kosyuk explains that the vast majority of those who remain are low-income or low-mobility people. So, the team does not stop volunteering and continues to work.

Therefore, the NGO also continues its work. Currently, more than 50 volunteers are constantly working, providing humanitarian assistance to the residents of the Kherson region. Mezyentseva recalls that the most work was after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant explosion on June 6, 2023. By bitter irony, it was Journalist's Day.

Now, they have another line of activity—coordinating other volunteers. That is, they help form a list of necessary assistance, tell where to take it, and to whom to give it so that it is as effective as possible.

"It is essential for us to help such organizations as the Union of Journalists Alternative. After all, only by being directly on the ground can you know the most urgent needs of people and promptly respond to them," commented Olha Moloko, the leading manager of the humanitarian aid and reconstruction cluster of the Eastern Europe Foundation.

At the same time, the Kherson TV tower has remained destroyed since November 2022. It makes no sense to restore it since the Russians can destroy it again at any moment—it is located too close to the Dnipro River, making it an easy target for the enemy.

Under such conditions, journalists cannot return to the TV channel's usual work. However, they say they don't want to work like they did before the full-scale Russian invasion. The terrible circumstances forced the team to develop both as an editorial office and as a non-governmental organization.

As a TV channel, they lost all funding sources since Kherson has no advertising market now. However, they found new ones in the form of EU grants provided through the International Renaissance Foundation, the Eastern Europe Foundation, and the Institute of Economic Research and Political Consultation.

The Kherson Plus team managed to save the editorial office and journalists during war conditions. Even during the occupation, several journalistic projects were implemented. "For a long time, their platform was almost the only opportunity for both the country and the world to learn about real life in Kherson and to hear and see the heroic residents of Ukraine's south. Preservation of such teams and editors should be a priority," says Viktoriia Stokratiuk, manager of the Civil Sustainability program of the International Renaissance Foundation.

After the liberation, Kherson Plus was able to buy new equipment for its journalists with the funds provided by its partners. The team also began to learn and practice new formats, such as change journalism or solutions journalism. Although the editorial board members are located all over Ukraine and the world, Kherson Plus continues to work and develop.

During the full-scale invasion, the TV channel's audience increased many times. The number of subscribers to the YouTube channel has increased to 55 thousand, and on Facebook, it has almost reached 50 thousand. Journalists started making short caption videos, gaining an average of 500,000 to a million views.

"We would not be able to work fully without the support of our partners. Today, 70 to 75% of the budget of the editorial office and the entire team of volunteer journalists are grant funds," emphasizes Kosyuk.

All journalistic projects the editorial office is currently working on have financial support from donors. Kosyuk also adds that the team purchased protective ammunition for two film crews, helmets, and bulletproof vests, exclusively with money from the European Union.

Also, thanks to the EU4USociety project, financed by the EU, the editorial office was able to provide itself with everything necessary for work during the blackout period after the flooding of Kherson caused by Russia's destruction of the Kakhovka HPP by purchasing charging stations, batteries, mobile signal amplifiers, and power banks.

Katarína Mathernová, EU Ambassador to Ukraine, emphasizes that the EU will continue to support NGOs that promote democratic values, in particular, independent media that defend freedom of speech:

"The tireless will to fight and protect freedom and democracy in Ukraine is the effort of the whole society. Many people who actively participate in non-governmental organizations and mass media activities are an integral part of this process. Despite all the difficulties, Ukrainians have demonstrated unprecedented strength, resilience, and deep devotion to European values. The European Union values ​​our close partnership with civil society and independent media and will continue to rely on it in the process of Ukraine's integration into the EU."

Find out more about the European Union's support for civil society and independent media of Ukraine by following the link.