Freedom of press barometer for June of 2018

In June, IMI experts registered the year's lowest number of violations of freedom of speech in Ukraine - 9 cases (May - 29, April – 17, March – 24, February – 34, January – 13). This data is provided by the monthly monitoring of IMI “Freedom of speech barometer”. The highest number of violations was in the category of impediment to lawful journalist activities – 3 cases. At the same time, compared to May (12 cases), this number reduced by four times (April - 9, March – 9, February – 18, January – 5). Violations of freedom of press were registered by IMI experts in 7 regions. The region with most registered violations was Kyiv, where 3 cases were registered, 1 case was registered in each of Volyn, Dnipropetrovska oblast, Donetsk region, Zakarpattia, Mykolaiv oblast and Kherson oblast. The journalists' right to practice their profession was prevalently violated by private individuals, an owner of media outlet, law enforcement officers, representatives of local authorities and a legislative governmental agency. In addition, IMI experts registered cyber crimes and political pressure, 2 cases of each, one case of beating and one case of censorship. Thus, since the beginning of the year, IMI registered 56 cases of obstruction, 13 cases of threats, 15 cases of beatings, and 9 cases of limitation of access to information.