Freedom of speech in Ukraine 2024 summarised: 268 violations, most committed by Russia

Illustration by the IMI

A total of 268 freedom of speech violations was recorded in Ukraine in 2024. 155 of the crimes were committed by Russia in the course of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the annual results of the Freedom Speech Monitoring by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI).

For comparison, in 2023 the IMI recorded 150 violations of freedom of speech. Of those, 67 crimes were committed by Russia in the course of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This suggests that the negative and destructive impact of Russia’s aggression on the Ukrainian media field has grown significantly in 2024.

According to the IMI, Russian aggression against Ukraine resulted in the death of 24 media professionals in 2024 (compared to 27 in 2023), three of whom were women.

Two media workers were killed while reporting:

• Viktoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist who went missing in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories in August 2023. In May 2024 Russia confirmed that Roshchyna had been detained and was in Russia. Her death in Russian custody was reported on October 10, 2024.
• Ryan Evans, safety advisor with the UK news agency Reuters, killed in the Russian strike on Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk on August 24, 2024.

The other 22 media workers died as combatants; some of them had been considered missing for a long time until their deaths were confirmed in 2024. For instance, Oleh Shemchuk, investigator from Zaporizhzhia, went missing in action near Bakhmut in September 2022 and was declared deceased in April 2024. Alla Pushckarchuk and Iryna Tsybukh, two journalists turned combatants, were killed in action in 2024 as well.

Freedom of speech violations in Ukraine in 2024

In total, 95 media professionals have been killed in the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with 12 dying while reporting.

Other Russian crimes recorded in Ukraine in 2024 included:

• kidnapping journalists;
• firing at and injuring journalists;
• death threats and intimidation of journalists;
• damaging media offices;
• shelling strikes on TV towers;
• cyber crimes;
• disabling Ukrainian broadcasting;
• legal pressure.

According to the IMI, at least 15 journalists with foreign and Ukrainian media outlets were injured by Russian shelling (compared to at least 10 such cases in 2023). For instance, some media professionals were wounded in so-called “double tap” strikes, which is a tactic Russia uses consistently when targeting Ukrainian cities. Nakypilo reporter Viktor Pichuhin came under such an attack in April 2024.

Russian shelling strikes destroyed or damaged eight media offices in 2024.

The kidnapping of five journalists by the Russians was publicly reported: such incidents were recorded in the occupied parts of Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

The Russians continued to intimidate journalists and mass mail threats to them in 2024. The IMI recorded three waves (in October, November, and December) of anonymous emails claiming that bombs had been planted in various media offices and other facilities across Ukraine: identical emails were received by many media outlets and journalists. Throughout 2024, Russian hackers interfered with Ukrainian TV broadcasting, streaming propaganda on the affected channels, and targeted the websites of both national and regional media outlets reporting on Russia’s war crimes.

IMI experts recorded Russian crimes against the media and journalists in 17 oblasts on Ukraine. These included regions both close to and far away from the front line. Furthermore, Ukrainian media outlets continue to close down due to the financial and staffing crisis caused by Russia’s full-scale aggression.

The freedom of speech violations in Ukraine committed by Ukrainian citizens

In 2024, IMI experts recorded 113 freedom of speech violations that were committed by the Ukrainian side. This number is higher than in 2023, when the IMI recorded 83 such violations. For comparison: a total of 97 violations were recorded in 2022, 197 in 2021, and 229 in 2020.

Most of the violations committed by Ukrainian citizens in 2024 fell under the following categories:

• cyber attacks – 23 (11 cases in 2023);
• obstruction of legal reporting – 21 (29 cases in 2023);
• indirect pressure – 19 (3 cases in 2023);
• restricting access to public information – 18 (20 cases in 2023).

In 2024, journalists’ right to reporting was most often violated by private citizens, local self-government bodies, law enforcers, central and executive authorities, judicial authorities, etc.

The most high-profile cases included:

• persecution of investigators from Bihus.Info, Slidstvo.Info;
• censorship at Ukrinform;
• attempts to exclude Suspilne from the united telethon.

Violations were recorded in 22 oblasts of Ukraine. Kyiv city and oblast traditionally ranked first (39 violations), followed by Poltava oblast (13 cases), Kirovohradska oblast (10 cases), Zaporizhzhia and Odesa oblasts (6 cases each), Volyn oblast, Dnipropetrovska oblast, and Kherson oblast (5 cases each).

Other crimes committed in Ukraine

2024 saw the first murder of a journalist in Ukraine since 2019: Qazaq opposition journalist Aydos Sadykov died in Kyiv following an assassination attempt. Sadykov was hospitalized in a coma after being shot. The journalist’s wife Natalia Sadykova blamed Qazaq President Qasym-Jomart Toqaev for her husband’s death.

For reference, 567 freedom of speech violations were recorded in Ukraine in 2022. Over 80% of those (470 crimes) were committed by Russia.

Read more about the freedom of speech situation in Ukraine in the Freedom of Speech Barometer section of the IMI website.

The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) is a Ukrainian non-governmental media organization that has been operating since 1996. The IMI defends the rights of journalists, analyzes the media field and covers media-related events, fights propaganda and disinformation and has been providing media outlets with safety gear for trips to the combat zone since the start of the Russo–Ukrainian war in 2014.

The IMI carries out Ukraine's only freedom of speech monitoring and keeps a list of high quality and sustainable online media outlets, documents Russia's crimes against the media committed in the course of the war on Ukraine. The IMI has representatives in 20 oblasts of Ukraine and a network of "Mediabaza" hubs to provide journalists with continuous support. The IMI's partners include Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House; the organization is a member of the International Organization for the Protection of Freedom of Expression (IFEX).