In the second episode of ARTICLE 19’s podcast ‘Silenced’, Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk speaks to Nicola Kelly from a bomb shelter in the west of the country.
She describes the threats facing journalists covering the invasion; efforts to ensure a free media space and get impartial information out to the world; and the far-reaching tentacles of the Russian propaganda machine.
“The war is not only waged on the battlefield with tanks and missiles and air defence systems,” she says. “It’s also waged in the media space. Russia has been waging this war against Ukraine at least since 2014, when it understood that Ukraine is slipping away.”
‘Silenced’ tells the stories of journalists and activists around the world whose governments attempt to rein them in and cover up the truth.
Listen to the first podcast in the series, featuring Richard Ratcliffe, campaigner and husband of British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in one of the last interviews before his wife’s release. He recounts the day she was arrested, the confused first months, the conditions in which Nazanin was held and the politics that surrounded her six-year imprisonment in Iran.
‘Silenced’ is hosted by human rights journalist Nicola Kelly and produced by Christopher Hooton at Ziggurat Studio. Music is by Julian Wharton and sound design by Rick Morris.