Support Reporting from War Zones on World Press Freedom Day 2022

Reporters in Ukraine have combatted mis- and disinformation, circumvented censorship, and conveyed accurate information out to Ukraine, Russia, and globally. Photojournalists like MacArthur Fellow Lynsey Addario have been reporting harrowing images of warfare and civilians fleeing.

But Russia’s war in Ukraine has already killed and injured too many journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least seven journalists have been killed while covering the war, others have been injured or detained, media workers have also been attacked.?

On this World Press Freedom Day in 2022, as we take stock of the state of free press and expression around the world, the safety of journalists is top of mind. Reporters are all too often harassed, threatened, attacked, and killed for doing their jobs: writing on politics and legislation, shedding light on abuse, bringing news of war, exposing corruption.?

Many of the organizations the MacArthur Foundation supports have been working for years or decades to make the world a safer place for journalists. Russia’s war in Ukraine is a harsh reminder of how much we still need to do.

As MacArthur considers how to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we are taking into account areas where we have expertise and can provide value. Among other areas of focus for special grantmaking, we are prioritizing support for journalists reporting from the conflict zone, a necessary and dangerous role.?

Our support will assist with the safety, evacuation, and relocation of journalists and bolster continued contextual multilingual reporting of the war. We saw these as two main opportunities for immediate, short-term investment which could have a significant impact on the ground, save lives, and ensure a continuing flow of accurate information from the conflict zone out into the world.

These two prongs come down to supporting and protecting the people who have expertise and context required to understand and communicate the events as they happen. We are committing an additional $2 million for journalism in Ukraine in the short term—funds geared toward organizations with which we have long relationships and sending support to new-to-us groups doing work in the trenches.

We are acutely aware that one of the great ironies of this work is that what we say could pose a risk to the very people and organizations we aim to support. Even as we work to protect journalists and their crucial role, we are cautious about mentioning activities that might endanger a grantee or a reporter.?

New needs and new risks are evolving in the field, but the challenges to journalism and the free press are a challenge to democracy everywhere. The war in Ukraine calls us all to double down on support for a free and independent press and support journalism, from our local reporters to war correspondents.