IMI director Oksana Romaniuk becomes a member of the Freedom of Speech Committee public board

IMI director Oksana Romaniuk, photo by Serhiy Stetsenko / Radio Liberty

Oksana Romaniuk, th director of the Institute of Mass Information, joined the public board under the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech.

The list of board members was approved at a Committee meeting today, March 20.

The board will consist of 15 people in total:

• Roman Vasylniak – lawyer, member of the NGO "Human Rights Platform"
• Diana Dutsyk – member of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, CEO of the NGO "Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication"
• Natalia Zvoryhina – "Zaporizka Pravda" editor-in-chief, a board member of the NGO "Zaporizka Pravda Friends' Club"
• Valeriy Ivanov – president of the ICF "Ukrainian Press Academy", department head of the Institute of Journalism at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
• Dmytro Komarov – SEO and SMM manager of the "Afisha Media Group" websites, journalist, host of the radio station "Philadelphia FM"
• Liza Kuzmenko – head of the NGO "Women in Media", a member of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics
• Halyna Petrenko – director of the NGO "Detector Media"
• Oleksiy Pohorelov – president of the Ukrainian Media Business Association
• Tetyana Popova – writer, journalist, TV presenter, war correspondent
• Andriy Solomakha – steering committee member of the Council of Europe Project "Safeguarding Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Media in Ukraine", "Omega TV" deputy director
• Mykola Tipusiak – marketing director at Espreso TV
• Serhiy Tomilenko – head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine
• Volodymyr Fomichev – a Liga.net correspondent
• Zoya Sharykova – representative of the All-Ukrainian Charity Foundation "Journalist Initiative"

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, hopes that the members of the public board will help the Committee to step up its work.

"We have a very small Committee, and there is a lot of work to do, really. Both in bill development and parliamentary control, as well as enhancing the international diplomacy in terms of journalists' rights protection and freedom of speech. So I really hope that the members of the public board, and we have excellent gender balance in the composition, will divide these fields of work among themselves and help our small Committee to step up its activities," said the deputy in a comment to the IMI.

In January 2024, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn announced that the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech is preparing a hearing on the investigation of crimes related to preclusion to journalistic work.

The IMI monitors Russia's crimes against the media and journalists in Ukraine. In the two years since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has committed 567 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine.