A post from Feeding the Elephant: A Forum for Scholarly Communications.
by the Feeding the Elephant Editorial Collective
On February 24, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked attack on the sovereign territory of Ukraine. Since then, Ukrainian cities have been bombed, over two million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, and ordinary people have taken up arms to oppose the incursion alongside the Ukrainian military. Meanwhile in Russia, access to social media has been shut down or restricted and a new law has cracked down on independent Russian media and forced foreign news outlets to suspend reporting in the country. The wartime censorship law criminalizes all criticism of the invasion, including calling it an invasion rather than a “special operation,” under the label of "misinformation."
This week, instead of a regular post, Feeding the Elephant would like to express our concern for and solidarity with the people of Ukraine, including our colleagues in scholarly communications—scholars, publishers, and librarians—whose work to safeguard information and create spaces of free exchange are at the heart of the work we all do. We share an appeal from the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Booksellers calling on colleagues “to find ways and tools to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and support Ukrainian people in this difficult time.” We also share an open letter from the president of the Ukrainian Library Association in which he reiterates the vital role of libraries to empower people, communities, and societies by educating, sheltering, and protecting them from misinformation. We also support those people in Russia who risk their careers and their freedom by protesting, signing open letters, and calling for #nowar and #нетвойне. We ardently hope for an end to this tragic attack on the people of Ukraine.
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