IMI: Freedom of speech violated 201 times in Ukraine in 2018

During 10 months of 2018, IMI’s experts (Institute of Mass Information) recorded the total of 201 incidents of freedom of speech violation in 23 regions of Ukraine. 

The number is a little lower than during the same period of 2017 (237 incidents). Among them, 147 incidents were connected with physical aggression towards journalists. 

In October, IMI documented 12 violations of the rights of journalists in 7 Ukrainian regions. Among them, 10 incidents were connected with physical aggression towards journalists. Journalists were not admitted to mayor’s meeting, faced movement restrictions, obstacles to use microphone or to put questions to an interviewer, they were poured over with unknown substances, they were prohibited to film or photograph, they were punched and approached for communication with knife.

 The majority of incidents connected with the violation of journalists’ rights were documented in Kyiv (5). Two incidents happened in Lviv region, and one incident happened in each of the following regions: Donetsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi. The rights of journalists were violated by individuals, representatives of local authorities, lawmakers, law-enforcement authorities and others. 

Moreover, in October, one cyber-attack and one political pressure happened. The experts note that 15 cyber crimes were committed against journalists in 2017. 

Thus, since the beginning of the year, IMI documented 80 incidents of preventing legal professional activity of journalists, 28 beatings of journalists, 27 threats, 15 incidents of restricted access to information and 14 cyber-attacks.