IMI records 14 freedom of speech violations in Ukraine in February

Illustration by the IMI

The Institute of Mass Information experts recorded 14 freedom of speech violations in Ukraine in February, according to the IMI’s monthly monitoring study “Freedom of Speech Barometer”.

The majority of the crimes (12 cases) were committed by Russia. These included injuring journalists, death threats and intimidation of media workers, and damage to media offices.

Two media professionals were killed by Russian forces in February:

• Yaroslav Shapochka, a soldier, former Fakty journalist, had been considered missing in action since March 2023. His death in Donetsk oblast was reported on February 10, 2025.
• Tetyana Kulyk, a journalist with Ukrinform, died in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv oblast on the night of February 25/26. Tetyana was the author and host of the project “Nation of the Invincible”.

According to the Institute of Mass Information, a total of 98 media professionals have died as a result of Russian aggression since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

In February, anonymous emails with bomb threats to media offices and various buildings across the country continued to arrive to journalists. Namely, such emails were received by: Cheline, Volynski Novyny, Pershyi Kryvorizkyi, Syla Pravdy, IMI, Detector Media, Novyny Khmelnytskyi.

The IMI also recorded cases of media offices being damaged by Russian shelling. Both cases were recorded in Kyiv: FREEDOM TV (dozens of windows in the office were broken by the shock wave of the Russian strike, production facilities and cars nearby were damaged) and the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR (windows and doors in the offices were either broken or blown open).

The IMI recorded two freedom of speech violations that were not related to the Russian war on Ukraine. These were cases of obstruction of legal reporting and beatings.

My—Ukraina TV journalist Viktoria Dmytrenko was attacked by a woman while filming a news story about the murder of a teenage boy. According to eyewitness accounts and video footage of the incident, the woman hit the journalist in the face until she bled and knocked the mobile phone out of her hands. Viktoria Dmytrenko filed a police report for obstruction of reporting and assault.

Dnipro.media reporter Valeria Tokar was not allowed into the session hall during the February 19, 2025 Dnipro City Council meeting. She spent the entire event on the specially designated balcony. Meanwhile, representatives of another Dnipro media outlet – the communal enterprise Dnipro Studio Television (Dnipro TV) – were moving freely around the hall, filming the entire meeting.

Read the full monitoring study here.

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).