On September 10, 2026, as part of the XVIII Ukrainian Investigative Journalism Conference (UIJC26), a panel discussion titled “The Price of Investigations: An Open Discussion on Women in Investigative Journalism” will take place.
The Investigative Journalism Conference, organized by the Institute for Regional Press Development (IRPD), will take place in Kyiv on September 10–12, 2026. The discussion will be held on September 10 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Investigative journalism comes at a cost. For women working in this field, that cost often takes particular forms: gender-based threats and online attacks, professional burnout, barriers to accessing sources and leadership positions, as well as less visible consequences they have to cope with in order to continue working on issues of public importance.
The session aims not only to identify the challenges but also to move toward discussing practical solutions. In the first part, Ukrainian women investigative journalists will share their experiences, discuss the challenges they face in their professional work, and highlight practices that have helped them withstand pressure and continue their investigations.
The second part will take the form of an open 30-minute discussion. Everyone in the audience will be welcome to join the conversation: to raise an issue, share a solution that has worked in practice, or receive feedback from other participants.
Discussion participants
- Kateryna Saienko — investigative journalist at Suspilne.
Kateryna will speak about adapting to civilian life after military service and returning to high-risk work in journalism. In particular, she will discuss the mistrust and lack of understanding she has faced because of her military background, as well as gender-based reactions from audiences to her investigations into fraudulent schemes for evading military mobilization. She will also address invisibility and vulnerability. Her remarks will focus on the experience of “triple invisibility” — as a woman veteran, a woman in investigative journalism, and a member of a community whose experiences are often overlooked by the media.
- Svitlana Stetsenko — journalist at Bihus.Info.
Svitlana will discuss waves of gender-based online attacks following the publication of her investigative reports. After her investigations into the activities of the Honcharenko Centres and the U420 network of so-called “souvenir shops,” she faced sexism, gendered disinformation, sexualized harassment, hate speech, image manipulation, and threats of physical violence.
She will discuss the emotional toll of such attacks, the security risks they pose, and the challenge of simultaneously working on new stories while responding to attempts to discredit her personally.
- Liubov Velychko — investigative journalist who contributes to TEXTY.org.ua, Mind.ua, and other media outlets.
Liubov will discuss the personal and professional cost of working on complex and socially sensitive topics. In particular, she will talk about preparing a story about a veteran who shot and killed police officers in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, as well as her work on an investigation into anti-mobilization movements, which is expected to be published shortly before the conference.
The discussion will be moderated by Liza Kuzmenko, Head of the NGO Women in Media, and Olia Syrotiuk, ECPMF Coordinator.
The session is organized by the NGO Women in Media and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), with the support of the #CivilSocietyCooperation programme of the German Federal Foreign Office.