Photo By Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Tarr | U.S. Army Capt. Scott Kuhn (center), public affairs officer for the Joint...... read more read more
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YAVORIV, Ukraine—Developing cohesive relationships is one of public affairs’ primary goals and that’s exactly what three multinational public affairs officers achieved Sept. 22 during a forum on military and media relations at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.
The three Army officers from the U.S., Canada and Ukraine spent over an hour discussing the different aspects of their job with approximately 40 journalism students. The students are in their second and third year of college and are familiar working with the media but lack experience working with military personnel.
The round table discussion began with the officers giving a brief description of their public affairs backgrounds and then went into a question and answer session.
U.S. Army Captain, Scott Kuhn, a public affairs officer for the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, has worked in public affairs on both the civilian and military side for 14 years. Having experience on both sides of the spectrum gives him a unique understanding of the importance of maintaining strong relationships with civilian media.
“It is important for us to work side-by-side with the media,” said Kuhn. “It helps us to be transparent with the public and helps us to get our story out.”
Military public affairs has regulations that govern how personnel can interact with the media. The regulations dictate what information can be discussed with the media and lays out guidelines on how to share information.
“The phrase commonly used when discussing media relations in Canada is maximum disclosures with minimum delay,” said Canadian Air Force Captain, Derek Reid, public affairs officer for Canada’s Joint Task Force Ukraine. “We should be giving up as much information as we can as quickly as possible within certain policies.”
Kuhn added that it’s important to know what types of information need to be held back to prevent potential harm.
“Ultimately, keeping in mind, what we call operational security,” said Kuhn, “protecting sensitive and classified information or anything that could jeopardize the life of our Soldiers or the security of the United States.”
Kuhn said that the guidelines he and his Soldiers adhere to are: Be accurate in the facts that are shared with the public; release the information in a timely manner, and always be truthful.
“First and foremost, we never sacrifice accuracy and truthfulness in the interest of timeliness,” said Kuhn. “We always want to make sure that what we put out to the civilian media is truthful and accurate before we put it out.”
Ukrainian Col. Alexander Poronyuk, chairman for the Ukraine Regional Media Center West in Yavoriv said that his unit benefits from working and learning from their foreign colleagues.
“We borrow their knowledge and experience and incorporate it into our work,” said Poronyuk.
Kuhn concluded by giving the students a bit of advice that he learned over his 14 years of working in the public affairs career field.
“If you ever have the opportunity, get to know the Soldiers, and learn their stories,” said Kuhn. “They are going to open up and share things with you. It’s going to help you develop that relationship that you need to become a good reporter.”
Building strong relationships and engaging with the local community here is just one aspect of the JMTG-U mission in Ukraine. Their primary goal is to build a sustainable and enduring training capacity within the Ukrainian land forces.
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2016 04:17 |
| Story ID: | 210522 |
| Location: | YAVORIV, UA |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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