EventsClub LunchClub Lunch Panel: Covering ...

Club Lunch Panel: Covering the War in Ukraine

Date: 13 Jun 2022 12:30 PM — 02:00 PM | Venue: Dining Room

LUNCH TALK
Covering the War in Ukraine


	PANEL

	Monday, June 13, 2022
	12:30pm for 12:45pm – Lunch
	1:10pm – Address
	First Floor

In late February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. Since the invasion, journalists have been at the forefront and the frontlines documenting the immense scope of the brutal conflict, often doing so at great personal risk. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least nine journalists have been killed while covering the war. This month at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, we host a panel discussion with a few of the tireless reporters who have covered the ongoing and ever-fluid war in Ukraine including Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk, CNN photojournalist Tom Booth, and CNN Senior Correspondent Ivan Watson. They will discuss their efforts to provide objective journalism in a war where disinformation has run rampant, the dangers reporters face in a warzone, the ever growing humanitarian disaster in the country, and the fate and future of Ukraine. Moderated by FCC President Keith Richburg.

To accompany the talk, the Club is showcasing some of the harrowing photojournalism by Agence France-Presse (AFP) that has emerged from the war. “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine” is on exhibit on the Van Es Wall for Club members and the general public to view during the month of June.

Panelists include:

Nataliya Gumenyuk is a well-known Ukrainian journalist, author, documentary filmmaker specialising in foreign affairs and conflict reporting. She is the founder and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab. Nataliya is the author of several documentaries and books, including The Lost Island: Tales From The Occupied Crimea, and Maidan Tahrir. Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion to Ukraine Nataliya regularly writes for The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Rolling Stone, Die Zeit. She also provides commentaries for CNN, MSNBC, Sky News, The New York Times, Democracy Now, Time Radio, BBC Radio, ABC Australia, ITV, Monocle 24 and other international outlets. Gumenyuk was the co-founder and for 5 years head of independent Hromadske TV, and is currently a Board member. Gumenyuk is a Member of the Council for Freedom For Speech Under the President of Ukraine.

Thomas Booth is an award-winning photojournalist and editor for CNN International, based at the network’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. He covers breaking news and major news events in Asia and around the world. He also works on long-form feature programs and investigative documentaries. Booth joined CNN in 2005 as a Technical Director and Editor. He was born in the UK and raised in Hong Kong.

Ivan Watson is an award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN based at the network’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. Prior to CNN, Watson worked at NPR, where he spent eight years reporting extensively on major stories around the Middle East, Central Asia and West Africa. Key stories included the US invasion and troubled occupation of Iraq and the US-led overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Before joining NPR, Watson worked as a Moscow-based producer for CNN in the late 1990’s. He covered the Russian war in Chechnya and the sinking of the Kursk submarine in the Arctic, as well as the unexpected rise of a former KGB agent named Vladimir Putin to the post of President. Throughout his career, Watson has been recognised multiple times for his reporting. In 2020, his documentary Borneo is Burning was awarded Best Current Affairs Programme at the ContentAsia Awards. Other honours include the Royal Television Society’s Best News Coverage in 2013 for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and two Emmy awards for coverage of the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. Watson attended Brown University, where he earned a BA in International Relations. He is fluent in Russian and French.