On 20 November 2018, an event “A Hundred Years of Ukrainian Journalism, A Hundred Years of Ukrinform”, organised with the support of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, was held in the Column Hall of Kyiv City State Administration.
The event was opened by President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, who congratulated Ukrinform news agency on its 100th anniversary.
“In today’s post-truth era, Ukraine and the entire democratic world have to fight, literally, for every single fact, for just opinion, for every single piece of credible information, and for the right of citizens to obtain credible, truthful, and objective information,” the President stressed, highlighting the role Ukrinform plays in this process.
Ukrinform was also congratulated by Iryna Herashchenko, First Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada; Viacheslav Kyrylenko, Vice Prime Minister; Yuriy Stets, Minister of Information Policy; Yevhen Nyshchuk, Minister of Culture; Vitaliy Klychko, Kyiv’s mayor; and others.
“We live in a unique period, and have similarly unique opportunities. I dare say that Ukrinform is a number one news agency in Ukraine. I am convinced that its staff has a clear understanding of its mission. And here, the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine is in lockstep with journalists in that the best counter-propaganda is truth,” Mr Stets was quoted as saying.
The participants of the event were treated to a theatrical multimedia performance, where Ukrinform’s 100-year-long history was extrapolated to the history of Ukrainian media as a whole in order to understand its tipping points and climaxes. They could also observe how the agency was created by Dmytro Dontsov; how Volodymyr Narbut stood up for Ukraine’s interests in the information space; what Illia Ilf and Pavlo Tychyna had to do with the agency; and why its three directors were purged.
The event also presented a unique exhibition of paintings by Roman Sushchenko, a Ukrinform correspondent who was illegally detained and sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia under trumped-up charges. The President awarded the correspondent Third Class Order of Bravery.