Entire news department of Lvivska Khvylia radio station was fired

On September 26, the information department of the news program «Aktsenty» on the Lvivska Khvylia radio station was fired. This information was confirmed by the comment for Vholos by the ex-director of the department Iryna Martyniuk, who had been working at Lvivska Khvylia for over 11 years.

«Yesterday, due to being unable to work in the conditions they created for us, and with such a person as Oksana Kolodrubets (head for social and informational programs - ed.) we decided not to go on air, yet we did attend our workplaces. Presently, all workers of the information service of Lvivska Khvylia, the five journalists including me, are formally fired», said Martyniuk.

In particular, the following employees were fired: Iryna Martyniuk, Victoria Prykhid, Iryna Salo, Sviatoslav Drabchuk and Dmytro Kumar.

According to mass media, the TV and radio company Lvivska Kvylia is owned by Myroslav Khomyak, who was this year appointed the director of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of Lviv Oblast State Administration.

In her commentary for the Institute of Mass Information, Iryna Martyniuk mentioned that the department’s team worked in an uncomfortable environment, engineered by Oksana Kolodrubets (owner’s representative - Ed.). As Martyniuk said, immediately after joining the staff of the radio station Kolodrubets had conflicts with the rest of the team. She was interfering with the work of journalists, instructed them what to do and how to do it, Martyniuk said.

“I do not understand what her function was, she was supposed to come to improve quality, but we received no help. Instead of help, it was the other way around”, pointed out Martyniuk.

At that, the journalist mentions that Kolodrybets did not practice any censorship, it was just lack of professionalism. “I cannot say that there was censorship or instructions on what to include. Yet it was very uncomfortable, impossible to work with her. There were conflicts over small details, for example, over changing some word. It was a great lack of professionalism, bordering on petty tyranny”, admitted Martyniuk.

The last straw was the conflict between Kolodrubets and the journalist Iryna Salo. According to Martyniuk, the administration of the radio station said to let go of Iryna. Yet, the team stepped in on her side, first they refused to go on air, but later the journalists filled the resignation forms, as the conflict was never resolved.

“The last straw was when the administration asked to say good bye to Iryna Salo... We came to work but we were not broadcasting news, it was our self-defense, our journalist solidarity”, Martyniuk added.

The radio journalist Dmytro Kumar commented for the Institute of Mass Information that Kolodrubets was constantly humiliating journalists, even made production editors cry.

“Kolodrubets is our new news supervisor. Earlier, there was no such position, it was invented just for her. We were fired without a good reason, just because the team refused to work with her, as she always humiliates the journalists, makes the production editors cry”, stated Kumar.