An Odessa journalist has announced an indefinite hunger strike in protest of his dismissal

Odessa-based journalistDmytro Bakaev announced an indefinite hunger strike, accusing the management of the publication "Dumskaya" of secretly firing him after ten years of collaboration. In response, one of the media outlet’s founders, Mikhail Shmushkovich, stated that the decision was made by the editorial board due to issues with the quality of the content.

Dmytro Bakaev announced the start of his protest on social media.

According to him, over the past two months, the editorial staff had effectively stopped publishing his completed reports, after which he was switched to piecework pay. The journalist considers these actions a covert dismissal “during the war and on the eve of winter.”

“Piecework pay is great when they’re accepting your work. But if they haven’t accepted your work for two months and then say, ‘Now you’ll only get paid for what we accept from you’—I call that a de facto dismissal. And I believe I was fired in a cynical and despicable manner,” wrote Dmytro Bakaev. 

He also noted that they could have parted ways with him differently and offered compensation. The journalist emphasized that, as the head of the NGO“Center for Journalistic Unity,” he has no right to remain silent about such treatment of media professionals. 

Bakaev is now demanding an official apology from the publication’s management for the manner in which their relationship was terminated, as well as a symbolic charitable donation to the “Center for Journalistic Unity” to help other journalists who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

For his part, Mykhailo Shmushkovych publicly rejected the accusations and stated that since 2014, personnel matters at the publication have been handled exclusively by the editorial staff itself. According to him, the collaboration with Bakayev should have been terminated even earlier, as the editors had to spend too many resources on revising his articles.

“If we look at this specific case, if it were up to me, our collaboration with Dmitry Bakayev would have ended at least a year earlier… From what I know, Dmitry Bakayev produced truly excellent and powerful reports. However, in reality, the editors had to put in a great deal of work on these pieces to make them readable. While Oleg Konstantinov was editor-in-chief, he did this willingly, but over time it became increasingly difficult. As a result, the editorial team decided to limit our collaboration,” Mykhailo Shmushkovych wrote on social media.

He also emphasized that, given the war, he is directing his resources toward helping the military and volunteers, and he called Bakaev’s actions blackmail.

Shmushkovich also noted that the editorial team would issue an official response later. 

The publication’s editor-in-chief, Yuriy Basyuk, also commented on the matter. He stated that in August he personally informed Dmytro Bakaev of the transition to a freelance basis due to a change in editorial policy. According to him, after receiving his final payment in September, Bakaev did not submit any new story ideas and wrote in a text message that he would “fight” the media. 

Basyuk noted that Dmitry was not the only employee with whom he had to have such a conversation. However, he said, cooperation with the others continued.
 

Юлія Калабайда