Less than half of the press service for the visit of His Holiness John Paul ІІ to Ukraine in 2001, working in Lviv, were professional journalists. Meanwhile their word was highly praised by foreign journalists who had covered many apostolic visits. Creation and maintenance of the official visit’s website was supervised by Ihor BALYNSKYI, political scientist, head of the Journalism Department of the Humanities Faculty at UCU, Docent of the Journalism Faculty at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv.
— When I am plunging in recollections of that time, such incredible impressions immerge strait away! I can say that since then I’ve completely changed my views of many things. First of all, I supervised the website dedicated to the visit of His Holiness. That was new both to me and to the Ukrainian society at large, because ten years ago the Internet could not be a trusted mass media. Many people treated information presented there with suspicion. Secondly, I gained an absolutely new journalist experience: for me, a secular journalist, it was a passage into clerical environment that treated in their own way the methods of presenting information as well as immediacy and considerateness in formulation of their opinions. I had to reconsider many things: furnishing information required patience, while immediacy appeared to be not the main point.
The experience was unique also because I saw how information worked in religious environment, that a lot depended upon the way of its presentation since later on it was used by various mass media, both Ukrainian and international. Even though at that time the press service was headed by bishops, priests, the majority of its workers were secular people. It was a unique experience for all of us.
I remember the reaction of foreign journalists to the unprecedented number of people that gathered in Lviv – mainly Greek-Catholics. The number of believers which we published on our website – around 1.5 million – was shocking to many people. One day a journalist from the Russian channel NTV came to our press center to ask once again whether we hadn’t confused the number incidentally. Then a camera operator called from the scene of action and said that probably even more people had gathered there. Thus, the number might also be a real shock for Russians because the then Patriarch of All Russia Aleksiy, at the same time touring Russia, Ukraine and Belorus, according to Russian mass media gathered no more than ten thousand believers. As we see, the difference was really tremendous, but all journalists had a chance to see with their own eyes that no one was manipulating information.
One more interesting point was the impression of journalists who before the visit of the Pope had treated UGCC with skepticism, considering it to be – humiliatingly – Uniate. Not a few believed that an excitement around the Pope was created artificially. But in reality everything was very sincere, open and – what’s the most important – large-scale! After that in the public’s eyes UGCC stopped being a local church functioning on the level of a few parishes. The divine service in Lviv became a clear illustration, even denying the old social stereotypes.
Yet, undoubtedly my brightest memory was the very person of the Pope. Workers of the press service had a chance to receive his blessing almost before the departure by airplane. That was the moment of parting. And I remember myself when, standing a few meters away from John Paul II, I was wondering what powerful energy, what power of Word and Faith that weak, sick person had. It looked as if all those miracles happening in the souls of people that were standing on squares of Ukraine could be worked only by a robust, strong man. And there was such a discrepancy – weak in body, yet so strong in spirit! You see, such were my own feelings, perhaps, not professional enough, but I saw that for many journalists that was the first experience of work with such type of information. Besides, that was an opportunity to learn how foreign journalists worked, in particular Polish colleagues. They could clearly formulate their request: they knew what they needed, how it should look and when they expected responses. Therefore, exchange of professional experience is an extremely useful thing.
— Do you happen to remember the reaction of Ukrainian journalists, because till then not a single religious or even political event had attracted so much interest of the world?
— Every journalist received from our press service a set of information, documents in which the biography of the Pope was described in detail, the history of the Roman and Greek Catholic Churches in Ukraine, we even provided the forms of salutation of clergymen. This was meant to do the work of journalists easier, even if he/she had never come across anything similar before. In my opinion, information support for the visit was so well coordinated, every mass media worker was able to easily enter the context. Their task was only to provide information, correctly and accurately.
It’s interesting to note that the general atmosphere of good will and peace, which always accompanied the Pope, was spread to mass media people, because no arrogance or worry could be seen anywhere. It should be emphasized that even bishops gladly cooperated with mass media, that’s why we had an opportunity to receive commentaries, sometimes even private detailed explanations. The then vice-rector of Lviv Theological Academy, Jeffrey Wills, who supervised establishing of the press center, concluded that at the beginning of the project he had a great fear, but he was glad that none of his fears was materialized. His words became for us, Ukrainian journalists, the best appreciation of our activity during the visit of John Paul II.
— Were you monitoring the Ukrainian mass media? How professionally were journalists processing the information they received from you?
— As a matter of fact, this was not part of our duties, and after the visit was ended, as soon as we submitted the last information on the parting, the work of the press service came to an end. Perhaps, some church organizations were doing this; unfortunately, I cannot say much. The only thing was that during the visit, due to our own professional ambitions, we were trying to analyze the work of mass media that used our information and referred to us as a source, and then we could not reprove anybody for incorrect interpretation or inaccurate information.
— As an experienced journalist, can you tell how the visit of the Pope influenced the coverage of religious topics in Ukrainian mass media? Is it true that the visit attracted more of our attention to this issue in Ukraine?
— The visit of John Paul ІІ introduced religious topics into the broader social context. Drawing certain analogies, I can see that the visit gave journalists an opportunity to evaluate religion and its influence on various social processes which were less noticeable in the Ukrainian society. Since then both the Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches in Ukraine and even Vatican with its leaders have been present in the geopolitical space of Ukraine. For the primarily Christian environment of Ukraine the visit of the Pope was a truly outstanding event, therefore journalists could not help recording it. Thus, now religion is no longer a narrowly specialized topic amidst journalists. Academically speaking, it has acquired an interdisciplinary character.
— Yes, Ukrainian mass media have been writing more about religion over the last ten years, yet there are mistakes as well… Can you distinguish the most typical ones?
— The problem is that Ukrainian mass media do not have so-called thematic specialization in the field of religion. Since the Ukrainian Independence in some newspapers, by inertia, there were columns on issues of religion contributed by some journalists. As of today, in any information agency, on-line edition, TV channel – in particular in a news studio, radio station there is no journalist specializing in religion. In my opinion, journalist education should not only include general knowledge of the theory of journalism but be specialized as well. This can be achieved by self-education or by introduction specialization at journalism departments. At one time, as a due to the Bologna process, the list of electives at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv included the course on religion journalism, but, unfortunately, there were neither real class hours nor proper specialists who could read relevant lectures. In academic process or in practice of regional or all-Ukrainian mass media, only with few exceptions religious topics is considered to be good for serious coverage in mass media.
The newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnya is an example of serious treatment of religion for me: Kateryna Shchotkina professionally and systemically analyzes religious topics not only in a religious context, but as an interdisciplinary issue which has its influence on culture as well as politics and economics. I would like to distinguish the newspaper Den of the period when the journalist Klara Gudzyk was alive, who studied religion in a historical context. But these are exceptions since as a rule religion in Ukrainian mass media is covered only in case of some news occasions or in a context of some scandal, for instance, a fight for a church. Unfortunately, people who have no sufficient knowledge and training very often take up this extremely important subject.
— I know that you are establishing a graduate program for journalists at UCU. Do you think it’s going to give journalists a real chance to acquire solid knowledge on religion?
— Within the framework of this program we will try not to make a special emphasize on developing one professional course “Religion and Mass Media” but to present the subject of religion in its relations to various spheres of social life. We want future journalists to understand the measure of their responsibility not only for covering religious topics but for moral and ethical aspects they create in society through their activity as well.
The program is designed so that the Christian context would interplay in the majority of academic courses. This will allow us to bring up a new type of journalist who would understand the moral foundations of the profession. Besides, students will be able to choose a course where they will learn how to cover religion in mass media. For the first time in the history of journalist education there will be a lecture course entitled “The Church and social communication” which will study the attitude of the Catholic Church to mass media. I hope that the program will be useful for journalists and will change the atmosphere not only in Ukrainian mass media but in the religious environment at large!
Interviewer: Taras Antoshevskyi
Lviv, April 2011