On Dec. 11, 2007, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources held the finals of the journalism contest Let’s Save Together!
The contest, the second of its kind, was organized by the environmental ministry. Its goal is to draw the Ukrainian community’s attention to environmental protection problems, improve ecological education of Ukrainians, form ecological values, and nurture a caring attitude to the environment and personal responsibility for one’s actions.
The jury members consisted of department heads and experts from the Ministry of the Environment, as well as journalists and scholars, who read approximately 100 articles submitted by contributors from various corners of Ukraine.
While evaluating the submissions, which differed in terms of subject and style, the jury took into account such criteria as urgency and novelty of the raised questions. They also assessed exclusivity of the information, factual content, social value (utility), and the degree of the author’s familiarity with the subject. The jury also considered style, logic, and the journalist’s command of the material, including conciseness, readability, balance, literary skills, objectivity, and political independence.
The competition was severe, which meant that there was no absolute winner. The jury chose four winners. They are: The Day’s journalist Hanna Hopko for her report “Are the ministers on the right path? Belgrade summit holds debate on the perfect environment”; Borys Pryshchepa for his article “A new forest takes a long time to grow,” exposing the problem of damage to the environment as a result of forest fires in Kherson oblast; Leonid Maistat for his article “What comes after us,” on the problem of preserving clean water in the city of Borzna, Chernihiv oblast; and Mykola Ivantsiv, the editor of the Volia narodu (People’s Will) newspaper published in the city of Busk, Lviv oblast, for his report “Catastrophe: two dimensions of one disaster.”
Pavlo Bolshakov, deputy environment minister, congratulated the contestants, saying, “Coverage of environmental problems in the media is tightly connected with society’s attention to ecological problems. Therefore, the contest’s special priority is to nurture a conservationist mentality among broad strata of the population, starting from an early age. This is the key condition for the renewal and conservation of nature and a healthy life for the coming generations. The contestants showed a high professional level and proved to be people who believe that respect, love, and environmental protection are vital.” The environment ministry plans to hold similar events, Bolshakov added.
