On Sunday, in the framework of Novomedia Awards ceremony, distinguished media professionals received awards for covering Christian values in their materials. This year, 7 editorial offices and journalists were awarded, including Yedinstvennaya and Focus magazines, online public television channel Hromadske TV, as well as Novyi Kanal and STB national TV channels.

Particularly, journalists of Abzats program at Novyj Kanal (New Channel) covered their conversation with chaplains, who were ministering in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone. Notably, as of now there is no legislative base in Ukraine to protect chaplains in the ATO zone. Journalists admitted that chaplains went to the ATO without proper ammunition and returned with basically no belongings, because they would leave all their clothes and military shoes to the Ukrainian soldiers. Chaplains serve as psychologists, friends and parents for soldiers. The above said TV program was awarded in the nomination “Responsible Journalism” for covering the devoted service of church ministers on the military frontlines.

Unlike the previous Novomedia Awards ceremonies, this year’s ceremony was marked by a large number of stories about Christian heroism in the ATO zone. Despite numerous challenges, Christian volunteers serve people in the conflict-torn area and some of them get killed for their faith. Dmitriy Feonik, editor of the Big Topic section in the Focus magazine wrote a piece about these volunteers.

“It is very important to show people in the ATO zone and the way they live. We covered a story about a priest who helped to free people captured by the terrorists. It is important to me to show these heroes,” said Nataliya Gumenyuk, a journalist of online public television channel Hromadske TV. She received an award in the nomination “Responsible journalism” for her video interview “Monologue from Donbas” with pastor Sergey Kosyak who helped to evacuate people from captured cities, delivered humanitarian aid to civilians and organized a prayer marathon in downtown Donetsk.

Editorial office of the program “Relates to Everyone” at a national TV channel Inter was also acknowledged by the Novomedia Association, especially for the program issue “Miracles of Healing”. This issue covered some of the most distinguished testimonies shared by people. The heroes of this issue gave praise to God in a very open manner. Such stories motivate the audience to believe, not to give up even in the hardest times, and God`s answers will come.

Novomedia granted awards in two categories: “Regular Coverage of Eternal Values” and “Responsible Journalism”. For the past year, the Monitoring Committee followed publications in the printed media, Internet, as well as radio and TV programs and selected the most impressive ones. Statuettes, diplomas and special gifts were presented to the authors adequately covering religious issues, family and other Christian values.

One more journalist was awarded for his story “The Word of a Pastor” in the news program Vikna (Windows) at STB national TV channel. The story tells about a pastor from a local church in Sloviansk (Eastern Ukraine) who rescued people during the city bombing and helped afterwards.

“We can admit that over the past year we have seen a large number of high-graded materials on TV, Internet and in the printed media that met our monitoring requirements. We are pleased to say that we see more and more media content promoting eternal values and related social issues; there is more content promoting the truth and bringing good to the media,” said Yuliya Solokha, project manager of Novomedia Awards. 

Inter TV channel Yedinstvennaya (The Only) magazine were awarded in the nomination “Regular Coverage of Eternal Values” for a series of respective video and printed publications.

Ruslan Kuharchuk, Novomedia Association President admitted: “We are glad to admit that Ukrainian mass media are becoming safer and journalists’ work – more responsible. We expect next year to be even more challenging in terms of selecting our award nominees among the large number of candidates who adequately cover eternal Christian values.”

Novomedia Awards ceremony is held annually. Media monitoring and content analysis for the next year’s ceremony have already started. In view of this, Monitoring Committee encourages journalist and editorial offices to submit their materials to the following electronic address: awards@novomedia.org.

During 2014 Novomedia Awards ceremony, the audience had a chance to enjoy performances by Vyacheslav Rybykov, Roman Vaschuk, Shanis, and Narnia choreographic band.

Novomedia Association Press Center