Today is the Day of Military Journalist of Ukraine and World Whale Day: what is being celebrated on February 16
Kyiv • UNN
On February 16, Ukraine celebrates the Day of Military Journalist, honoring the memory of fallen media professionals. Also today, the world celebrates Whale Day, drawing attention to the conservation of their population.
Today, on February 16, Ukraine congratulates military journalists, press officers, and civilian journalists who report from the front line on their professional holiday, and honors the memory of their fallen colleagues, UNN reports.
The event was launched by order of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine in 2018.
It was on February 16, 2015, near the city of Debaltseve, when Captain Dmytro Labutkin, 3rd rank, who was the editor of the TV and radio studio of the Ministry of Defense “Briz”, died while performing a combat mission and professional duty. Until the last seconds of his life, he continued to film the events.
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, many civilian media professionals have become military journalists and press officers.
Every day, risking their lives, they report from the hottest spots of the frontline and appear on national TV and radio stations to provide Ukrainians with up-to-the-minute information on repelling Russian aggression.
On February 11, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine reported that the war claimed the lives of 97 media workers.
Also, today, on the third Sunday of February, many countries around the world are holding events to mark World Whale Day.
The event was launched in 1980 in Hawaii. Its organizers tried to draw the attention of society and governments to the need to implement measures to restore the whale population on the planet, which has been significantly affected by whaling.
The whaling industry, which originated in Scandinavia in the ninth and tenth centuries, began to develop rapidly in the eighteenth century. Whales were killed for their whiskers, liver, brain, glands, and meat.
According to animal rights activists, whale hunters killed up to three million mammals in the twentieth century.
Since the mid-twentieth century, the global community has begun to implement measures to restrict whaling, which was eventually almost completely banned. Only Norway, Iceland and Japan, as well as some aboriginal peoples, carry out limited fishing as a traditional occupation.
According to scientists, at that time the population of the Atlantic whale had dropped to a critical 400 individuals, and the humpback whale to 500 individuals.
At present, scientists cannot name the exact number of whales in the world's oceans. It is believed that their population fluctuates between 25 thousand individuals.
February 16 is the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs Pamphilus, Porfirije and others.
Pamphilus or Pamphilus of Caesarea (? - 309, Caesarea Palestina, Israel) was a Christian priest, founder of the Bible school, one of the 12 martyrs who suffered in Caesarea Palestina in 308-309, a saint. He was martyred with a sword.
