The professional rights of journalists have been respected during the second round of presidential election on April 21st 2019 took. The experts of IMI identified only one incident of breach of press freedom. This is conclusion based on the results of survey IMI held the day of election.
The incident occurred in Zaporizhzhya, where the police officer tried to prevent the journalist to take video at one of e to ban to a journalist for a web-based edition Depo.Zaporizhzhya to film at the electoral precinct #230958 in Dniprovsky district in Zaporizhzhya. The matter was closed after the police officer was told what were her error.
“In general, we have noted the election day as such that have been held in a democratic way in compliance with journalistic rights. For the first time, the IMI’s experts have been observing a quasi non-infringement of freedom of speech at the election. This is to testify there is a positive trend as to understanding how important is the profession of journalist”, as Kateryna Dyachuk, IMI’s expert, told.
The ballot day, the lawyers of IMI were receiving several calls to the emergency phone line from the journalists, but their answers were related not to breaches to their professional rights, but they asked for advice as to election law.
To remind, at the first round of presidential election, IMI experts identified 6 incidents in total, when the journalists’ rights had been violated.
At the presidential election in 2014, there had been 7 incidents.
