Ukraine
And I had an ego to cater to. I had always wanted to report from a war zone. But I couldn’t just quit my subbing job. Instead, I booked two weeks’ holiday and hopped on a budget flight to Krakow and bussed over the border to Lviv in Ukraine. No beach holiday for me – I was bound for a warzone to report as a freelancer. I had made no contact with any editors, however. I made the plan on a whim. “Look, see the explosions,” says Arseny, a guest in the hotel
in Lviv. He shows me his phone shortly after the Russian bombing attack while we sit in the ‘bomb shelter’ in our hotel. He points to a video playing on social media. It shows a missile cruising through the sky before it plunges to the ground. Flames erupt and plumes of black smoke rise. “That’s crazy,” I said, shaking my head. It later emerges that three missiles struck Lviv, leaving one person injured. Russian strategic bombers launched the rockets from the Caspian Sea. The missiles hit power stations linked to the railway network. The next day, I’m at the scene of the bombing, at the railway
power substation about a half hour’s drive from Lviv. My shakes are gone and I’m relaxed. The sun is shining and I’m sweating in a flak jacket, the word Press daubed on the front. A US security contractor in my hotel – let’s call him Dan – lent me the bulletproof vest for the day. I thought it no harm to be safe. What I had needed fast the morning after the bomb strike
in Lviv was how to get a driver/fixer and the location of the scene of the attack. The Telegram app group for foreign journalists and fixers/drivers in Lviv, set up by the Ukraine Media Center, sorted me out fast. I sent out a query message and, in minutes, had lined up a driver, Alex, and a fixer pinged me the locations of the areas hit by the missiles (for security reasons, officials had not yet released that info). At the scene of the railway power substation that had been hit, the earth was blackened. Outside at the gates, a soldier at the site of the attack gave me a “no comment”. Another drag was that no one spoke English, not even my driver, and I don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian. That was sorted after I latched on to two local Ukrainian
journalists interviewing witnesses at the bombing sites. They did their interviews then translated my questions and told me the replies in English.
Being a freelance journalist in Ukraine
How to get there? The only way is overland – no civilian planes are flying into Ukraine. Most fly to Poland, like I did, and bus it into the western Ukrainian city of Lviv then beyond.
What to do before you go? Please take out war journalism insurance. I chose Battleface (
battleface.com) and got a policy for two weeks for as little as €80. Request your military
press pass before you go (email newsmodu@gmail. com for info). It allows you to pass military checkpoints. Bring a flak jacket and helmet. Reporters Without Borders provide them in Lviv (in the Ukraine Media Center), but demand is high.
What to do when you get there? The first city you will likely get to will be Lviv. There, sign up with the Ukraine Media Centre. Their services include a briefing area where press conferences and
debates on the war are held. Sip a free coffee and go to
their bar/cafe for media personnel only to work (and drink). Chinwag with journalists to research stories.
How to get around? Ukraine is enormous and your best bet for comfort for long journeys is train travel. A warning: Russia is actively targeting the rail network with cruise missiles.
How to stay safe? If you’re a freelancer going anywhere near a conflict zone, move with a pack of journalists. If something goes wrong, you’re not alone.
How much is a fixer/ driver/interpreter? A driver will typically charge €100-€150 for a day plus fuel costs. A trick is to get a driver who speaks English. If not, add on 50€ to 100€ to your trip for an interpreter. The best way to save is to
join forces with other freelancers. I regularly
shared a fixer and his car with three other freelancers and the cost tumbled.
What medium is best to cover a war? I’m an old-school print journalist, but would prefer to have broadcast skills as well. I travelled with a journalist from Austria who did a piece to camera on his phone from a district shelled in Kharkiv. He flogged it to all the news channels in his country.
Where to sell stories? The UK and a couple of Irish national papers have the war well covered with their reporters in Ukraine. Aim for strong human interest stories that only you have. If you can’t flog a war
story, maybe write a piece about what it’s like to travel in a war zone (I met one journalist who did that).
One person I interviewed was an Orthodox priest whose
church had been damaged in the missile strike. I asked him for his reaction to the Russian assault on Ukraine and the missile strike, and he called Moscow’s army “savage invaders”. A light bulb went off and I saw that headline on the page of a tabloid. I pinged off my story to the Irish Daily star, angled on ‘Priest slams Russian invaders’ and they ran it the next day. But a freelancer won’t get rich filing one story to one paper.
The trick is to file far and wide. I hit up a reporter mate in the Daily Mirror and other papers in London with the same story but no one bit. That’s the life of freelancing. After about five days in Lviv, I had a mountain of material I
Remnants of a Russian tank near Bucha
knew would make a great Sunday read, a nice 2,000-word article. I pitched to the Business Post, a Sunday broadsheet in Ireland, and got lucky. “We’d been trying to get someone out there,” the news editor said. They immediately agreed to take my 2,000 words and any other article of the same length every week. So far, they have published one a week for the past four weeks and
theJournalist | 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
