Our annual conference is scheduled at a particularly crucial moment as journalists in Ukraine come under increasing threat, as the media sector reels from a collapse in revenue and loss of talent due to the war - and as Russian misinformation and manipulation is on an alarming upswing. Through insightful talks and networking, we wish to facilitate fresh interaction between Ukrainian media entities both in N. America and inside Ukraine and with emigre media entities. In addition we wish to create stronger connections between Ukrainian journalists and their colleagues in mainstream media. Finally, we desire to amplify some of the positive aspects of Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression - including how it has risen to a new level on the battle frontline of social media and marketing.
The venue is the outstanding Ukrainian Institute of America on Central Park East in New York City. It occupies one of the grandest turn-of-the-century structures that remain in New York City: the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion; designed by famed, Gilded-Age architect C.P.H. Gilbert in his signature French-Gothic Style
As one of the premiere Ukrainian cultural hubs on the continent, the UIA will provide us with an ideal environment to promote Ukrainian music and talent - but also to serve up discussion on Saturday on how Russia has used the war to commit cultural genocide.
Agenda
Friday, May 19, 2023
4:00PM: Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: curated tour with conference participants with a focus on Ukraine. (Numbers strictly limited; registration required)
6:00PM: Doors to UIA open
6:30PM: Conference opening remarks (UIA/UJANA)
Greetings from Representative of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations
Video: journalists who have been killed in the war in Ukraine; moment of silence.
Remarks by Gulnoza Said, Europe & Central Asia Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists.
Video greeting by Kira Rudyk, leader of Golos Party, Ukraine
7:15: Opening Discussion: Identifying positivity in the current environment: amid the irrepressible resilience of the Ukrainian people, one thing that has stood out is the strength of Ukrainian journalists. Against all odds, they have reported on the war but also strived to keep the government accountable - all under extremely difficult circumstances
Natalia Sedletska, Ukrainian investigative reporter; Head of “Schemes” - RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service investigative department ; Acting RFE/RL’s Kyiv Bureau Chief
In conversation with Michael Bociurkiw, Sr Fellow, Atlantic Council; Regular Contributor - CNN Opinion; UJANA Executive Board. This session is in partnership with the Atlantic Council.
8:15 Cultural programme commences. Entertainment by TBA; Singer Mari Cheba (virtually from Ukraine); networking reception (featuring wines, cider and farm cheese from Ukraine; and wines from Moldova)
Saturday, May 20, 2023
9:00AM: Java and croissants
09:30AM: The Cultural Toll of Russia’s Invasion: “Cultural genocide as part of Russia’s war strategy”
Laura Ballman, expert on cultural property in times of war. With Sarah Kerr, a reporter and producer in the video unit at The New York Times, covering national and international stories and breaking news. In conversation with Michael Bociurkiw and Ira Solomko
10:45AM: #BeBraveLikeUkraine: Kyiv vs the Kremlin - A major component of Ukraine’s war with Russia is launching savvy social media campaigns that have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. What’s the secret sauce?
Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of Office of the President of Ukraine (via Skype)
In conversation with Olena Kalabania
11:45AM: How we were ‘Be Brave Like Ukraine’ during 400+ days of war in the UN
Amb. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations. In conversation with Michael Bociurkiw
12:15PM: Lunchtime conversation: Finland and NATO - efforts to counter disinformation
Teri Schultz - Freelance Brussels Correspondent, NPR/DW (via Skype)
1:00PM: European Perspective: covering the Ukraine war (with emphasis on the positive aspects: exiled journalists pursuing their craft against all odds / positive refugee stories)
Helena Lins, Reporter, CNN Portugal. In conversation with Michael Bociurkiw. This session is in partnership with the Atlantic Council
2:00PM: Never Again/Russian war crimes and the pursuit for justice at The Hague
Kristina Hook. Assistant Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development. Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council. In conversation with Katie Livingstone. This session is in partnership with the Atlantic Council
3:00PM: Journalism vs the Kremlin (this session will pivot off of the headline news of the arrest of the WSJ correspondent in Russia)
Roman Badanin. Roman is founder and editor-in-chief of Proekt and Agentstvo (The Agency, in English), a collaboration of journalists who have been targeted by the Russian government for their investigative reporting into the most powerful forces in their country.
In conversation with Helena Lins and Michael Bociurkiw
4:00 PM: Ukrainian Media Watch discussion
4:15 PM: Internal meeting of the board of the Ukrainian Journalists Association of North America.
7:00PM: St George Ukrainian Festival, Lower East Side
Speakers & Moderaters
Natalie Sedletska
Natalie is a Ukrainian investigative reporter; Head of “Schemes” - RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service investigative department ; Acting RFE/RL’s Kyiv Bureau Chief. Some of her recent work can be viewed here
Helena Lins
Helena Lins is a Portuguese, Bulgarian and Brazilian journalist covering human rights, social justice and foreign affairs. Part of the founding team of CNN Portugal, she has been focusing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Helena has reported on refugee stories, social changes in Europe and Russian dissent. She also investigates investments in Portugal in light of the sanctions. Helena collaborated with Al Jazeera, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana and the Portuguese public broadcaster RTP. She worked at the European Commission and she is the creative producer of Until Porn Do Us Part, winner of Best Documentary Feature by the Portuguese Film Academy.
Roman Badanin
Roman Badanin is founder and editor-in-chief of Agentstvo (The Agency, in English), a collaboration of journalists who have been targeted by the Russian government for their investigative reporting into the most powerful forces in their country.
Badanin started The Agency in the summer of 2021 after Russian authorities outlawed Proekt (The Project in English), the nonprofit investigative news organization he founded in 2018.
The Kremlin declared Proekt an “undesirable” organization, which meant that Badanin, his colleagues, and anyone who had dealings with Proekt, including sources, could face criminal prosecution. Over the previous three years, Badanin had led his team in publishing a series of investigations into secret financial ties between major business interests and top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin and his family. The Proekt has been recognized with several Russian and international journalism awards.
Shortly before the designation, police had raided Badanin’s apartment as well as the apartments of his deputy and a Proekt reporter, seizing their electronic devices and work materials. Badanin left Russia and helped members of his team relocate to nearby countries and resume working on their ongoing investigations.
As a 2022 JSK Senior International Fellow, Badanin focused on finding alternative ways to produce and distribute deep investigative reporting on Russia’s ruling elite that gets around government censorship and intimidation efforts. Agentstvo is his first effort and he envisions it as a collaborative home for Russian investigative journalists, many of whom have over the last year been declared “foreign agents” by the government. While that is a less severe action than the “undesirable” organization designation, it has led multiple journalists to quietly move their base of operations outside of the country.
Badanin has been working as a journalist in leading independent Russian news organizations for 20 years. He previously was a deputy editor-in-chief at Gazeta.Ru, editor-in-chief at Forbes Digital (Russia), RBC news agency, and editor of Dozhd (TV Rain), an independent Russian TV channel.
Badanin created the Moscow-based Proekt during his 2018 JSK Fellowship, modeling it after the nonprofit U.S. investigative news outlet, ProPublica. It was Russia’s first nonprofit news organization.
Laura Ballman
Laura Ballman offers an informed look at Russia’s assault on Ukrainian cultural heritage – which amounts to cultural genocide. She is an expert on cultural property in times of war, and In March 2022, Foreign Policy published Laura’s op-ed calling for swift American action to protect Ukrainian cultural property (https://foreignpolicy.com/author/laura-ballman/).
Currently a Washington-based strategic business consultant and frequent geopolitical media commentator, Laura previously served as a CIA operations officer overseas, including in multiple warzones that were marred by cultural genocide. She also served several years managing intelligence for the FBI’s international art crime team before joining Deloitte as head of the firm’s Art and Finance practice.
Previously, Laura worked as a journalist for the Associated Press, CNN, Newsweek and other media, including while living in Kyiv in the mid-1990s.
Laura holds a master’s degree in the Business of Art from Sotheby's Institute of Art; a master’s degree in InternationalAffairs (with honors) from Columbia University; and a bachelor’s degree in History (with honors) from the University of Minnesota.
She sits on the Board of Directors for Art Table, the national association of women executives in the art world, as well as the Board of Directors for The Long Run Foundation, which provides financial grants to artists in adversity. Laura also serves on the Meridian International Center’s Cultural Diplomacy Council.
She is a passionate defender of democracy, cultural independence, and Ukraine’s right to exist.
Sarah Kerr
Sarah Kerr is a video reporter and producer at The New York Times. In 2022, she was a regular contributor to The Times’s video coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a lead reporter on “A Culture in the Crosshairs,” a collaboration between the Times’s Visual Investigations unit and the cultural critic Jason Farago. Using open source reporting techniques, the team verified damage and destruction at 339 cultural sites in Ukraine starting in February 2022, focusing on history, community and loss at four sites near the front lines. The story recently won a New York Press Club award and was recognized as part of a Pulitzer Prize finalist package for Mr. Farago’s work.
Amb. Sergiy Kyslytsya
Sergiy Kyslytsya has served in a wide variety of senior posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine - including Deputy Foreign Minister, and Director-General for International Organizations. He has served at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washingtob, DC as Minister-Counselor, DCM (Political), and Political Counselor. He currently serves as President of the UN Women Executive Board Bureau.
Teri Schultz
Teri Schultz has been covering NATO and the European Union from Brussels since 2007. She can currently be seen, heard and read on NPRand Deutsche Welle and is a frequent moderator and panelist at international conferences focused on defence and security. Schultz began her international reporting career in Helsinki, Finland in 1989 and spent much of her time in the then-occupied Baltic states as the Soviet Union crumbled. She spent a decade in Washington, DC, including many years covering the State Department, and has made six reporting trips to Afghanistan. She also is a classroom instructor with Lie Detectors, a journalist-driven NGO teaching counter-disinformation tools to schoolchildren. Schultz holds a MSc in Political Science from the University of Helsinki and a BA in Journalism from New Mexico State University.
Kristina Hook
Kristina Hook is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. She specializes in genocide and mass atrocity prevention, emerging technologies, and post-conflict reconstruction. A specialist in Ukraine and Ukraine-Russia relations, she has worked in more than twenty-five countries including ones across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.
A former Fulbright scholar to Ukraine, Hook has conducted multiple years of fieldwork across thirty-two locations in Ukraine since 2015. Her forthcoming book analyzes Joseph Stalin’s historical genocide against Ukraine, the Holodomor, and how modern leaders interpreted this history to predict Russia’s aggression and Ukraine’s robust resistance. Her book draws from nine years of interviews with Ukrainian national leaders across the fields of politics, law, academia, and civil society.
Hook’s research has been published in Foreign Affairs, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Small Wars and Insurgencies, and Genocide Studies and Prevention. Her analysis has also appeared in CNN, USA Today, the Washington Post, Voice of America, the Hill, the Atlantic Council, and other foreign-policy outlets.
Hook is also an assistant professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development. She received her joint PhD in peace studies and anthropology from the University of Notre Dame. She holds MA degrees in anthropology and in international development from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Denver respectively, as well as a BA from the University of Florida.
Prior to her time in academia, Hook served as a policy advisor at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations and as a political and economic officer in an embassy abroad. She received a US Department of State Meritorious Honor Award for her work on responding to mass atrocities and was a presidential management fellow from 2013 to 2015. From 2020 to 2023, Hook served as a nonresident fellow at the Marine Corps University’s Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare.
Mykhailo Podolyak
Mykhailo is a Ukrainian politician, political strategist, journalist, crisis manager, and advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Since April 2020, Mykhailo has been the advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, and the Presidential Office's anti-crisis communications manager. He is responsible for assessing domestic and foreign policy priorities, developing strategic positions in the state information policy, crisis prevention, organization of the coordination of information policy by state institutions.
With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting from the 28th of February 2022, he became a member of the negotiation group.
Katie Livingstone
Katie Livingstone is a freelance journalist based in Ukraine who has covered the war since the full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize among other awards and featured in several outlets, focusing on illustrating the impact of politics and policy on people and society. She was a Fulbright fellow in Albania and holds an MA in Gender Studies from Central European University in Budapest.
Iryna Solomko
Iryna Solomko, is a journalist and documentarian. For more than 20 years in the profession, her interviews, investigations, articles, and columns have been published in leading Ukrainian publications. Her documentaries cover the Revolution of Dignity and the Ruso-Ukrainian War since 2014. In 2019, Iryna joined the Voice of America team as a correspondent in New York. Covers the work of the United Nations and the life of the Ukrainian community in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Iryna is the winner of the professional journalism competition "Honor of the Profession" in the nomination "Best Material with a civic position" for her documentary “Volunteers” about 90 Battalion, which was fighting for the Donetsk airport. In 2015 she was the nominee for the Teletriumph award in the nomination "Television documentary series/film" for the special project "Revolution of Dignity".
Michael Bociurkiw
Michael is a global affairs analyst and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He has been based in Ukraine since before Russia’s full scale invasion in February, 2022. From 2014-2015, he served as spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion and a frequent guest on BBC World Television, BBC World Service Radio, CNN, CNN International and other global media outlets. Previously, Michael served as a global spokesperson for UNICEF in Geneva and in various duty stations around the globe. As a journalist, he worked as a staff member at the South China Morning Post, Asia Times and Winnipeg Free Press. His bylines have appeared in Forbes, the Globe and Mail and the Los Angeles Times. Michael is a board member of the Ukrainian Journalists Association of North America and the East Europe Foundation. His first book, Digital Pandemic, was published in 2022.
The organizers would like to acknowledge the generous support of sponsors - including the SUMA Federal Credit Union and the Self Reliance New York Federal Credit Union, Temerty Foundation and Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE). They also acknowledge the generosity of Marriott Hotels, New York City; the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Moldova to the United Nations; and Eduard Gorodetskyi of My Wine in Odesa.