VOA Grant Will Bring Ukrainian Journalist to USA
Washington, D.C., June 10, 2014 — With a fellowship grant from Voice of America, a Ukrainian television correspondent will travel to Washington soon to work alongside staffers of VOA’s Ukrainian Service for several months and report about American life, views and values.
The grant was offered to the Ukrainian television company ICTV in Kyiv by VOA Director David Ensor during his visit to discuss the changing media landscape with Ukrainian broadcasters and government officials.
“ICTV with appreciation accepts the VOA proposal,” said Oleksandr Bohutsky, the company’s director and president, adding that he looks forward to the reports the ICTV journalist will send from the United States.
VOA has been providing customized reports for ICTV for some time, but the number has increased substantially during the recent crisis. VOA Ukrainian also produces a daily news program called Chas-Time that is seen on Channel 5, one of the top stations in Ukraine, as well as a weekly TV magazine show, Window on America, for Ukrainian state television. The service has also just launched a daily Russian-language news segment on U.S. and Ukrainian news called Studio Washington.
VOA Ukrainian had a strong following in the country before the crisis began in December, but its audience has grown dramatically since then. According to the latest polling information collected for VOA’s parent organization, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), VOA reaches over 18 percent of Ukrainians each week, up from nine percent the year before the crisis began.
While in Kyiv, Ensor met with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, leaders of several major broadcasting organizations and media sector activists, as well as U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt. He also attended the Atlantic Council’s annual meeting in Wroclaw, Poland.
“In the wake of the Russian invasion of Crimea, and the political changes in Ukraine, the media landscape is rapidly changing,” Ensor said. “It has been useful to talk directly with key people here in Kyiv and in Poland.”
For more information about this release, contact the VOA Public Relations office in Washington at (202) 203-4959, or write to publicrelations@voanews.com. For more information about VOA, visit the Public Relations website at www.insidevoa.com, or the main news site at www.voanews.com.