ORLANDO, Fla. – On Saturday, September 19, at the annual conference of the Society of Professional Journalists, in Orlando, Fla., Julian Hayda was presented with the Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award in Journalism.
He was nominated for the award by a collective of professors from DePaul University College of Communication, where he received a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in digital cinematography. The judges of the award wrote: “Maybe it is the international factor, but the way this person went after the story, tried to use FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] techniques and was on the ground helping other journalists in a fight for human rights by helping them with U.S. reporting techniques is very impressive.”
Mr. Hayda made several trips to Ukraine between December 2013 and May 2014, documenting events on the Maidan in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine. Working with journalists from both Ukraine and the U.S., along with his partners from the Group for Tomorrow’s Ukraine (GTU), he worked to disseminate up-to-date information to those outside of Ukraine who were watching in fear and wanting to stay abreast of events as they unfolded.
Prior to his work in Ukraine, Mr. Hayda worked on several small projects with Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization and through Vidia Media Productions, and created videos for Plast and the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus (he is a member of both groups).
His largest project was a documentary film, “Block Four,” filmed on location to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. His current projects are documenting the unification of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches, and a series of YouTube “Coffee with…” dialogue videos with his colleagues from GTU.
Mr. Hayda lives in Chicago with his mother and three brothers. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in international studies, and plans to return to Ukraine in January to continue work on his current projects. He is a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 59.