543 crimes against the media and journalists in Ukraine committed by Russia in the year and 9 months of the big war
In the year and nine months since the start of the full-scale invasion Russia has committed 543 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine.
This is evidenced by the monthly monitoring "Freedom of Speech Barometer" by the Institute of Mass Information.
In October–November, the IMI recorded three freedom of speech violations by Russia: abduction and cyber attacks.
In total, the occupiers have killed 69 journalists since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; 10 of those were killed while reporting.
In November, Taras Davydiuk, a soldier, founder and editor-in-chief of the Rivne outlet "Horyn.info", was killed in action. The soldier died on November 3 on the outskirts of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia oblast. He was 37 years old. Taras Davydiuk took part in the Revolution of Dignity. At the start of the Russo–Ukrainian war, he served in the volunteer battalion "Harpoon". After that, he continued his service in a separate reconnaissance battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He only came home in early 2019. With the start of the full-scale war, Taras went to the front line. In recent months, he fought in the 14th separate regiment together with his Harpoon comrades.
In October it was reported that the occupiers are holding captive the administrators of the Telegram channels "RIA-Melitopol" and "Melitopol is Ukraine", accusing them of terrorism. The Russians only released a video of them in detention in their propaganda media and on Telegram on October 29, even though they had been arrested on August 20. The Russians released the names of the detainees: Oleksandr Malyshev, Heorhiy Levchenko, Maksym Rupchov, Yana Suvorova, Mark Kaliush, Kostiantyn Zinovkin. All of them are charged under several articles of the Russian criminal code: public calls for terrorist attacks, treason, espionage. They face 12 to 20 years in prison.
In November, Russian hackers targeted the United News telethon. The broadcast was interrupted by Russian music videos and propaganda. The Russians attacked the satellite signal. However, the specialists noticed and repelled the attack in time.
Russians also attacked Suspilne's satellite chanlles. Someone was trying to interfere with the work of five Suspilne satellite chanlles by jamming them and changing their content. The affected channels included "Pershiy", "Suspilne Novyny", "Suspilne Krym", "Suspilne Culture" and "Suspilne Sport", which the viewers watch through individual satellite antennas.
The head of the Suspilne Supervisory Board, Svitlana Ostapa, remarked that Russia was behind the attack. "We found that Russia is behind this. We associate this with our independent reporting and truthful coverage of the war, which the aggressor does not like very much. We managed to restore the broadcasting quickly. But in order to protect ourselves from blocking, the company is considering switching to another, more secure satellite," she said.
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