From field reporting to newsroom language choices, and a hostile political climate at home, Slovak journalists face mounting challenges in covering the war in Ukraine. Euractiv Slovakia interviewed three Slovak news outlets to find out how they are navigating journalistic dilemmas three years into the conflict.
Written by Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk
Like all global media, Slovak outlets were initially unprepared for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Covering the largest armed conflict in Europe since the end of World War II has presented a unique set of journalistic challenges, which have evolved over time alongside the conflict itself.
A particular challenge Slovak journalists now face is the political environment that has emerged since late 2023. The government of Prime Minister Robert Fico has publicly embraced pro-Kremlin rhetoric.
Its representatives frequently attack mainstream media — labelling them as “Soros-funded” — and refuse to engage in standard communication. Instead, they prefer to spread their messaging through social media or so-called disinformation media, which are anti-Ukrainian and do not adhere to journalistic standards.
Another challenge Slovak journalists share with their colleagues in Western newsrooms is how to write about the war itself. This issue is multilayered and often debated behind the scenes in editorial offices.
These discussions include decisions about language and terminology, criteria for sending reporters into the field, and how to maintain long-term reader interest in a war that has lasted for more than three years.
To better understand how Slovak media are handling these challenges, Euractiv Slovakia spoke with the foreign desks of three major Slovak news outlets: the newspaper SME, the news portal Aktuality.sk, and the newspaper Pravda.
Writing rules: clarity on aggressor and victim
Lukáš Onderčanin, head of the foreign desk at SME, explained that at the very start of the war, his team sat down with web editors and foreign desk reporters to agree on a shared terminology moving forward.
“We discussed avoiding expressions like ‘Ukrainian-Russian conflict,’ ‘war in Donbas,’ or ‘civil war,’ and emphasized clearly naming the aggressor. We prefer terms like ‘Russian invasion,’ ‘Russian aggression,’ or ‘full-scale Russian attack on Ukraine,’” Onderčanin said.
The other two outlets took a similar approach. On Aktuality.sk, reporters deliberately use terms such as “war,” “Russian invasion,” or “Russian aggression,” and avoid the word “conflict,” explained foreign correspondent Stanislava Harkotová.
While Pravda hasn’t formally codified its writing guidelines on Ukraine, foreign editor Andrej Matišák said their editorial approach also focuses on consistently reminding readers who the victim is and who the aggressor.
At the beginning of the war, there was also a national debate in Slovakia about how to pronounce and write Ukrainian geographical locations. Slovak, by convention, uses names based on Russian transliterations rather than Ukrainian ones — so Kyiv is rendered as Kyjev (Киев) rather than the Ukrainian Kyjiv (Київ).
This debate eventually led only one Slovak media outlet, Denník N, to change its grammatical usage, justifying the shift as an act of solidarity with Ukraine.
The outlets contacted by Euractiv Slovakia continue to use the conventional Russian-based forms. However, SME consciously opts for Ukrainian spellings when referring to less well-known cities.
Field reporting is becoming rarer
Reporting on the war also involves on-the-ground journalism. However, globally, the number of foreign correspondents in the field has been decreasing, as this type of reporting is financially demanding and typically only feasible for larger newsrooms.
The same applies to Slovakia, which, as a small post-socialist country with a population of 5.4 million, has a relatively limited media market.
The three outlets contacted by Euractiv differ in how frequently they report from Ukraine. The most consistent presence belongs to Aktuality.sk, whose journalist Harkotová has been covering Ukraine since the war began. In 2023, she began working from Kyiv as a full-time correspondent.
She explained that she tries to travel at least once or twice a month to various Ukrainian regions, including those directly affected by fighting. The resulting journalistic work includes field reports, human-interest stories, interviews, and even books — Aktuality.sk has published three about Ukraine since the invasion.
“It’s important for us that our readers can connect with the people directly affected by the war and get clear context about the various issues the war brings,” Harkotová told Euractiv Slovakia.
SME also actively reported from Ukraine during the early stages of the war. But after the first year, such trips became less frequent.
“Being on the ground was very important at the beginning. But now, there are more available sources, and reader interest has declined. Mainly due to high financial costs, it has become harder to ‘justify’ a field report,” Onderčanin explained.
The newspaper still publishes a significant amount of content from Ukraine through other means. One method is through external contributors, such as volunteers who deliver humanitarian aid and write reports along the way. Another is translating stories from international media with which SME has ongoing partnerships.
Pravda only occasionally uses field reporting from Ukraine, though Matišák acknowledges its importance and how it can deepen both journalistic understanding and audience engagement.
Falling readership
All three newsrooms confirmed that public interest in Ukraine-related topics has steadily declined. Still, each outlet has found certain types of stories that continue to resonate.
For Pravda, interviews and military analyses still attract significant attention. The same holds true for SME readers.
According to Onderčanin, SME’s Minute-by-Minute liveblog continues to be one of the most-read features in its World section. Beyond that, interest depends on what’s happening at the moment. In general, readers gravitate toward analysis of front-line developments, summaries of major battles, and articles offering a Slovak perspective.
At Aktuality.sk, Harkotová finds that readers respond most strongly to standard news coverage, explanatory journalism, and broad-topic summaries — such as the media storm around the U.S. presidential clash in the Oval Office over Ukraine.
She also noted that readers still follow stories on peace negotiations or tragedies like Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.
Other challenges: verifying information and mental health
As for other specific aspects of covering the war, the journalists mentioned a wide range of challenges — from choosing appropriate images, to ensuring efficient collaboration with other newsroom departments, to the difficult task of verifying information in a war zone. The last issue has proven to be one of the most difficult.
At SME, the editorial team has been very cautious about the credibility of their sources from the outset. They rely on Ukrainian, not pro-Russian, outlets, track international correspondents from major media, and use similar vetting strategies.
They are especially cautious about social media. While X (formerly Twitter) is a rich source of information about Ukraine, it is also flooded with conspiracy theories and pro-Russian propaganda. “So it was important to filter what are trustworthy sources and what are not,” Onderčanin added.
Harkotová from Aktuality.sk emphasized the difficulties of verifying information that is subject to strict information controls, particularly when it comes to national security issues — such as military operations.
She also flagged problems around field access: “It’s frustrating when journalists arrive at the scene of a missile strike and are kept behind police tape. I understand strict information controls when a military site is hit — but this shouldn’t happen when the target is a civilian building.”
Beyond the reporting challenges, she also noted the occasional burden of heavy bureaucracy, as well as the psychological toll of this kind of work.
“Journalists are no different from other civilians affected by war. That’s why it’s essential to take care of your mental and physical health — and above all, to know your limits,” the Kyiv-based correspondent concluded.
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