Olga Lopatynska joined Global Reporting as an intern in February 2014. She is a master student in Media and Communication at Stockholm University. In Ukraine, where she comes from, Olga was working in local media for several years after graduation as a journalist.

Olga sees her internship with Global Reporting as an opportunity to get valuable international working experience and being a student to connect theoretical knowledge to practice.

”My master programme gives me an insight into globalization studies, intersectionality theory, politics and popular culture. It is about the ways how this world works and how it is reflected in media”, she says. ”While working in my home country I was mostly concentrated on domestic issues, but here I can connect my skills and subjects of interest to a global context and get broader perspectives”.

Olga has been working as an editor in Ukrainian media dealing with legislation and civil rights. ”That is how my professional interest has formed. In particular, I am interested in relations between media and civil society, as well as human rights issues and democracy challenges. I find that legal literacy of the population, knowing and understanding your rights is important for the establishment of democracy, and media play a crucial role in this in developing societies”.

In addition, Olga cares about freedom of speech problems and anti-corruption challenges, especially in terms of Ukrainian reality, as she explains. “I believe that international experience will help troubled democracies to overcome obstacles, but there is big work ahead and I would like to be a part of it”.

She joins Global Reporting as mass protests called Euromaydan were raised in her homeland. “I aim to raise awareness here in Sweden of that injustice, human rights violations and attacks on journalists that take place there”.

Olga is an active student and is one of the founders of the non-for-profit organisation Ukrainian Youth in Sweden, which aims to gather Ukrainians (especially considering the Euromaydan political crisis) and to support their integration into Swedish society.

“I enjoy being in Sweden and studying how different social mechanisms work here. I am sure these observations together with my studies and internship will become more that beneficial for my future work in the field”.