Michiel Driebergen is a Dutch writer and a journalist. Het reports for radio, newspapers and magazines, like NOS, Trouw, Volkskrant and VPRO. This week Michiel was in Dnipro and now he’s covering the war from Lviv. Michiel Drieberger has a long history of writing on Ukraine. From the cities of Krakow and Lviv he has special interest in the return of Central Europa. Het published together with others The Jews of Lemberg and Lviv, City of Paradoxes.
Michiel Driebergen doesn’t see himself as a war reporter, like the famous Martha Gelhorn. Ernest Hemmingway or Marie Colvin. It is not the frontline but giving voice to common people and their fate, suffering and resilience which stands out in the work of Michiel Driebergen. People who today have to bear the burden of a war they did not choose. He talks with the Azov soldiers, Maidan protesters, farmers, school teachers, priests and men and women in the street. In his oeuvre Michiel offers a view from the underground. He is a unique witness of the struggle of Ukrainians to become a democratic nation, and today of course struggling to survive the war.
We will talk about Michiel Driebergen’s recent work en experiences in Ukraine in wartime. But we also discuss why Michiel has this special interest in Ukraine. Why did he come back to Ukraine year after year for almost two decades? What does it mean to ‘cover a war’? How to keep a distance as a reporter and still being partisan? Why not being a war journalist? Most of all, why should the fate of Ukrainians be of any interest of us?
