At the Odessa Train Station in Ukraine
I’m just back from travels and lectures through two former Soviet states, Ukraine and Georgia, encouraging investigative reporting as part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored program that seems wonderfully subversive. Don’t tell neighbor Vladimir Putin, but an informed public can be a tough bunch to con with government propaganda.
My grandmother, Susanna, a 1920’s refugee from these same states, would be…well, confused to learn that her grandson was advocating aggressive journalism in her old backyard – a place where Joseph Stalin and a long line of Russian czars and commissars never tolerated a news media even remotely independent or critical.
Hey, we’re sometimes barely tolerated in the U.S. of A., but the march of history in the former Soviet Union has taken some especially interesting turns.
Stalin’s private railcar
There I was on a recent Sunday afternoon wandering around the main square in Stalin’s hometown of Gori, Georgia – an emissary of free expression in a land that my family fled, in part, for that very freedom. I relished the irony as I toured Stalin’s birthplace. The late dictator’s bronze self has been removed from pedestals around town, but a museum and his boyhood home remain. There’s also his private railcar and considerable local ambivalence about whether to honor such a villainous native son.
My staunchly anti-Stalin grandfather was surely spinning in his Alaska grave.
In the Georgia capital of Tbilisi – as in the Ukraine cities of Kyiv, Odessa and Vinnytsia – I met with journalism pros and students alike. I was struck by their eagerness to expose corruption and abuses of power and to record the play-by-play of their young country’s modern history. It’s definitely an exciting time to be in the news business in this part of the world. But it’s also quite challenging, even dangerous.
At a university in exile, I met with journalism faculty and students forced to relocate from eastern Ukraine to a rented building in the western city of Vinnytsia. Insurgents had replaced the school’s original hometown faculty with Russian partisans.
Groups like FactCheck in Georgia and StopFake in Ukraine have targeted government lies and Russian propaganda, making them popular with the public but in potential conflict with powerful forces on all sides.
Stalin grounded
Donetsk University in exile
At a university in exile, I met with journalism faculty and students forced to relocate from eastern Ukraine to a rented building in the western city of Vinnytsia. Insurgents had replaced the school’s original hometown faculty with Russian partisans.
Groups like FactCheck in Georgia and StopFake in Ukraine have targeted government lies and Russian propaganda, making them popular with the public but in potential conflict with powerful forces on all sides.
Reporters displaced by Russia’s move into Crimea have relocated to Odessa for personal safety and access to independent media outlets.
But in both Ukraine and Georgia, independent media still are sometimes stymied by partisan owners and pressured by restrictive governments. A prominent Georgian TV anchor woman said she was forced to quit when her station owner insisted on projecting a pro-Russian bias. After generations of repression in this region, freedom of the press remains an elusive goal and very much a tradition-in-the-making.
We have it so much easier back home. Three centuries into this grand American experiment with an unfettered press most of us in the media do not face government censorship and rarely risk arrest or physical attacks. It is immensely humbling to preach and teach aggressive reporting to young journalists who are far more likely to face such real and serious threats.
Yet, photos from my j-school appearances show that they are hardly fearful students. At times our class sessions turned into something more like pep rallies for journalism. And though it was my mission to do the inspiring, it was I who came away the most jazzed by repeated displays of youthful hope and optimism among these future investigative reporters.
Nino Zhizhilashvili, Caucasus University Dean of Journalism, with author Rempel
As an American journalist, and as the grandson of refugees driven from both countries, I’m pulling for my new friends and wishing them great days ahead serving the interests of an informed public in Ukraine and Georgia.
Caucasus University journalism students
Additional institutions and organizations visited on my tour:
- The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy School of Journalism
- Dumskaya News Network in Odessa
- Mechnykov National University of Odessa
- Window on America Center in Vinnytsia
- Georgia Frontline Club in Tbilisi
- Studio Monitor in Tbilisi, an investigative group
- Georgia Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) journalism school, Tbilisi
At the Odessa Train Station in Ukraine
I’m just back from travels and lectures through two former Soviet states, Ukraine and Georgia, encouraging investigative reporting as part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored program that seems wonderfully subversive. Don’t tell neighbor Vladimir Putin, but an informed public can be a tough bunch to con with government propaganda.
My grandmother, Susanna, a 1920’s refugee from these same states, would be…well, confused to learn that her grandson was advocating aggressive journalism in her old backyard – a place where Joseph Stalin and a long line of Russian czars and commissars never tolerated a news media even remotely independent or critical.
Hey, we’re sometimes barely tolerated in the U.S. of A., but the march of history in the former Soviet Union has taken some especially interesting turns.
Stalin’s private railcar
There I was on a recent Sunday afternoon wandering around the main square in Stalin’s hometown of Gori, Georgia – an emissary of free expression in a land that my family fled, in part, for that very freedom. I relished the irony as I toured Stalin’s birthplace. The late dictator’s bronze self has been removed from pedestals around town, but a museum and his boyhood home remain. There’s also his private railcar and considerable local ambivalence about whether to honor such a villainous native son.
My staunchly anti-Stalin grandfather was surely spinning in his Alaska grave.
In the Georgia capital of Tbilisi – as in the Ukraine cities of Kyiv, Odessa and Vinnytsia – I met with journalism pros and students alike. I was struck by their eagerness to expose corruption and abuses of power and to record the play-by-play of their young country’s modern history. It’s definitely an exciting time to be in the news business in this part of the world. But it’s also quite challenging, even dangerous.
Stalin grounded
Donetsk University in exile
At a university in exile, I met with journalism faculty and students forced to relocate from eastern Ukraine to a rented building in the western city of Vinnytsia. Insurgents had replaced the school’s original hometown faculty with Russian partisans.
Groups like FactCheck in Georgia and StopFake in Ukraine have targeted government lies and Russian propaganda, making them popular with the public but in potential conflict with powerful forces on all sides.
Reporters displaced by Russia’s move into Crimea have relocated to Odessa for personal safety and access to independent media outlets.
But in both Ukraine and Georgia, independent media still are sometimes stymied by partisan owners and pressured by restrictive governments. A prominent Georgian TV anchor woman said she was forced to quit when her station owner insisted on projecting a pro-Russian bias. After generations of repression in this region, freedom of the press remains an elusive goal and very much a tradition-in-the-making.
We have it so much easier back home. Three centuries into this grand American experiment with an unfettered press most of us in the media do not face government censorship and rarely risk arrest or physical attacks. It is immensely humbling to preach and teach aggressive reporting to young journalists who are far more likely to face such real and serious threats.
Yet, photos from my j-school appearances show that they are hardly fearful students. At times our class sessions turned into something more like pep rallies for journalism. And though it was my mission to do the inspiring, it was I who came away the most jazzed by repeated displays of youthful hope and optimism among these future investigative reporters.
Nino Zhizhilashvili, Caucasus University Dean of Journalism, with author Rempel
As an American journalist, and as the grandson of refugees driven from both countries, I’m pulling for my new friends and wishing them great days ahead serving the interests of an informed public in Ukraine and Georgia.
Caucasus University journalism students
Additional institutions and organizations visited on my tour:
- The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy School of Journalism
- Dumskaya News Network in Odessa
- Mechnykov National University of Odessa
- Window on America Center in Vinnytsia
- Georgia Frontline Club in Tbilisi
- Studio Monitor in Tbilisi, an investigative group
- Georgia Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) journalism school, Tbilisi
At the Odessa Train Station in Ukraine
I’m just back from travels and lectures through two former Soviet states, Ukraine and Georgia, encouraging investigative reporting as part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored program that seems wonderfully subversive. Don’t tell neighbor Vladimir Putin, but an informed public can be a tough bunch to con with government propaganda.
My grandmother, Susanna, a 1920’s refugee from these same states, would be…well, confused to learn that her grandson was advocating aggressive journalism in her old backyard – a place where Joseph Stalin and a long line of Russian czars and commissars never tolerated a news media even remotely independent or critical.
Hey, we’re sometimes barely tolerated in the U.S. of A., but the march of history in the former Soviet Union has taken some especially interesting turns.
Stalin’s private railcar
There I was on a recent Sunday afternoon wandering around the main square in Stalin’s hometown of Gori, Georgia – an emissary of free expression in a land that my family fled, in part, for that very freedom. I relished the irony as I toured Stalin’s birthplace. The late dictator’s bronze self has been removed from pedestals around town, but a museum and his boyhood home remain. There’s also his private railcar and considerable local ambivalence about whether to honor such a villainous native son.
My staunchly anti-Stalin grandfather was surely spinning in his Alaska grave.
In the Georgia capital of Tbilisi – as in the Ukraine cities of Kyiv, Odessa and Vinnytsia – I met with journalism pros and students alike. I was struck by their eagerness to expose corruption and abuses of power and to record the play-by-play of their young country’s modern history. It’s definitely an exciting time to be in the news business in this part of the world. But it’s also quite challenging, even dangerous.
Stalin grounded
Donetsk University in exile
At a university in exile, I met with journalism faculty and students forced to relocate from eastern Ukraine to a rented building in the western city of Vinnytsia. Insurgents had replaced the school’s original hometown faculty with Russian partisans.
Groups like FactCheck in Georgia and StopFake in Ukraine have targeted government lies and Russian propaganda, making them popular with the public but in potential conflict with powerful forces on all sides.
Reporters displaced by Russia’s move into Crimea have relocated to Odessa for personal safety and access to independent media outlets.
But in both Ukraine and Georgia, independent media still are sometimes stymied by partisan owners and pressured by restrictive governments. A prominent Georgian TV anchor woman said she was forced to quit when her station owner insisted on projecting a pro-Russian bias. After generations of repression in this region, freedom of the press remains an elusive goal and very much a tradition-in-the-making.
We have it so much easier back home. Three centuries into this grand American experiment with an unfettered press most of us in the media do not face government censorship and rarely risk arrest or physical attacks. It is immensely humbling to preach and teach aggressive reporting to young journalists who are far more likely to face such real and serious threats.
Yet, photos from my j-school appearances show that they are hardly fearful students. At times our class sessions turned into something more like pep rallies for journalism. And though it was my mission to do the inspiring, it was I who came away the most jazzed by repeated displays of youthful hope and optimism among these future investigative reporters.
Nino Zhizhilashvili, Caucasus University Dean of Journalism, with author Rempel
As an American journalist, and as the grandson of refugees driven from both countries, I’m pulling for my new friends and wishing them great days ahead serving the interests of an informed public in Ukraine and Georgia.
Additional institutions and organizations visited on my tour:
- The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy School of Journalism
- Dumskaya News Network in Odessa
- Mechnykov National University of Odessa
- Window on America Center in Vinnytsia
- Georgia Frontline Club in Tbilisi
- Studio Monitor in Tbilisi, an investigative group
- Georgia Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) journalism school, Tbilisi
Caucasus University journalism students
At the Odessa Train Station in Ukraine
I’m just back from travels and lectures through two former Soviet states, Ukraine and Georgia, encouraging investigative reporting as part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored program that seems wonderfully subversive. Don’t tell neighbor Vladimir Putin, but an informed public can be a tough bunch to con with government propaganda.
My grandmother, Susanna, a 1920’s refugee from these same states, would be…well, confused to learn that her grandson was advocating aggressive journalism in her old backyard – a place where Joseph Stalin and a long line of Russian czars and commissars never tolerated a news media even remotely independent or critical.
Hey, we’re sometimes barely tolerated in the U.S. of A., but the march of history in the former Soviet Union has taken some especially interesting turns.
Stalin’s private railcar
There I was on a recent Sunday afternoon wandering around the main square in Stalin’s hometown of Gori, Georgia – an emissary of free expression in a land that my family fled, in part, for that very freedom. I relished the irony as I toured Stalin’s birthplace. The late dictator’s bronze self has been removed from pedestals around town, but a museum and his boyhood home remain. There’s also his private railcar and considerable local ambivalence about whether to honor such a villainous native son.
My staunchly anti-Stalin grandfather was surely spinning in his Alaska grave.
In the Georgia capital of Tbilisi – as in the Ukraine cities of Kyiv, Odessa and Vinnytsia – I met with journalism pros and students alike. I was struck by their eagerness to expose corruption and abuses of power and to record the play-by-play of their young country’s modern history. It’s definitely an exciting time to be in the news business in this part of the world. But it’s also quite challenging, even dangerous.
Stalin grounded
Stalin’s Birthplace
Author and translater
Donetsk University in exile
At a university in exile, I met with journalism faculty and students forced to relocate from eastern Ukraine to a rented building in the western city of Vinnytsia. Insurgents had replaced the school’s original hometown faculty with Russian partisans.
Groups like FactCheck in Georgia and StopFake in Ukraine have targeted government lies and Russian propaganda, making them popular with the public but in potential conflict with powerful forces on all sides.
Reporters displaced by Russia’s move into Crimea have relocated to Odessa for personal safety and access to independent media outlets.
But in both Ukraine and Georgia, independent media still are sometimes stymied by partisan owners and pressured by restrictive governments. A prominent Georgian TV anchor woman said she was forced to quit when her station owner insisted on projecting a pro-Russian bias. After generations of repression in this region, freedom of the press remains an elusive goal and very much a tradition-in-the-making.
We have it so much easier back home. Three centuries into this grand American experiment with an unfettered press most of us in the media do not face government censorship and rarely risk arrest or physical attacks. It is immensely humbling to preach and teach aggressive reporting to young journalists who are far more likely to face such real and serious threats.
Yet, photos from my j-school appearances show that they are hardly fearful students. At times our class sessions turned into something more like pep rallies for journalism. And though it was my mission to do the inspiring, it was I who came away the most jazzed by repeated displays of youthful hope and optimism among these future investigative reporters.
Nino Zhizhilashvili, Caucasus University Dean of Journalism, with author Rempel
As an American journalist, and as the grandson of refugees driven from both countries, I’m pulling for my new friends and wishing them great days ahead serving the interests of an informed public in Ukraine and Georgia.
Additional institutions and organizations visited on my tour:
- The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy School of Journalism
- Dumskaya News Network in Odessa
- Mechnykov National University of Odessa
- Window on America Center in Vinnytsia
- Georgia Frontline Club in Tbilisi
- Studio Monitor in Tbilisi, an investigative group
- Georgia Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) journalism school, Tbilisi
Caucasus University journalism students