Polish Journalists Association (SDP), National Association of Journalists of Ukraine
and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine, during the Polish-Ukrainian Forum held at the SDP Journalist House in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, have resolved to establish the “Common Europe” – a platform for journalistic cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe.
As far as the culture and the freedom of speech are concerned, Europe constitutes one area.
Nevertheless, the journalists from Central and Eastern Europe have experienced
the communist totalitarianism, censorship, political transformation and the struggle for independent journalism and freedom of expression, which is never given once and for all. Therefore, we would like to draw special attention to distinct issues of journalists and journalism in our part of the continent.
The platform shall be used to develop cooperation in the areas of :
1) exchanging information and experiences concerning journalism during the system transformation;
2) eradicating cases of impeding journalists’ work and violating the freedom of speech;
this shall include supporting the Ukrainian initiative of the annual “Impunity Kills” campaign held in the memory of journalists who paid for their work with their lives
as well as supporting the Polish initiative to set up Journalist Solidarity Foundation;
3) training regional journalists and exchanging experience in reforming regional media with reference to the newly adopted Ukrainian Local Printed Media Reform Act and Public Media Act;
4) training journalists in the work for the “new media”.
All European unions and associations of journalists interested in the aforementioned issues are invited to collaborate within the frames of the new platform.
Furthermore, we confirm the intention to continue our bilateral cooperation evidenced by, inter alia, the annual Polish - Ukrainian Journalist Award.
This document was drawn up on 21st September 2013 in Polish and Ukrainian, in triplicate, each version having the same legal force.
Krzysztof Skowroński
President of Polish Journalists Association
Oleg Nalyvaiko
President of National Association of Journalists of Ukraine
Yuriy Lukanov
President of the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine
Климович Ярослав
Котюжинська Тетяна
Набруско Віктор
Савчак Михайло
Тарасюк Дмитро
Бухтатий Олександр
Малієнко Алла
Остапа Світлана
Омельчук Сергій
Бойко Олексій
Фейло Ярослав
Редько Тетяна
Черемних Віра
Штурхетський Сергій
Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy
Jadwiga Chmielowska
Zbigniew Rytel
Józef Matusz
Jacek Sadowski
Łukasz Czarnecki-Pacyński
Tomasz Kleszczewski
Błażej Torański