IMI records 9 freedom of speech violations in Ukraine in March

Illustration by the IMI

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

Six of these were committed by Russia and included death threats and intimidation of media workers, damage to media offices, and cyber attacks.

Four media professionals turned soldiers were killed by Russian forces in March:

• Arthur Shybalov, a PTV UA cameraman and video editor turned soldier. Killed in action in the Kursk region (Russia) on March 13, 2025.
  
• Yuriy Kirpik, a producer of Starlight Media projects. His death was reported by his colleague, Starlight Media executive producer Oleksandr Bykov, on March 13, 2025.
• Kyrylo Polikevych, a Suspilne Dnipro videographer turned soldier. Killed in action on March 16 while performing a combat mission near Preobrazhenka, Pokrovsk district, Donetsk oblast.
  
• Dmytro Bendikov, a TSN.ua website editor turned army officer. Killed in action while performing a combat mission in the East of Ukraine on March 18, 2025.

A total of 102 media professionals have been killed in Ukraine over the course of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Diagram by the IMI

The online media outlet Pershyi Kryvorizkyi received death threats and emails claiming that a bomb had been planted in their editorial office, with one email featuring a video allegedly showing the bomb being planted.

Offices of two online media outlets were affected by Russian shelling strikes: the ceiling in Zaporizhzhia's inform.zp.ua crumbled, and the Oboz.ua office in Kyiv was damaged (the blast wave blew out windows and doors in the office building, and the Oboz TV studio sustained significant damage).

Two media outlets reported cyber attacks. These were Kremenchutskyi Telegraf, whose website was down due to a DDoS attack which the team attributed to Russia, and PTV UA (the latter was hacked, with hackers posting a video calling for the overthrow of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky). Both teams suspect russian involvement in the attacks.

The IMI also recorded three freedom of speech violations unrelated to Russia's war on Ukraine. These were restrictions on journalists' access to public information.

Such cases were recorded:

• in Kyiv (the Shevchenkivskyi District Court barred journalists from attending a hearing on the reinstatement of Professor Mykyta Vasylenko as lecturer at the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv);
• in Chernihiv (Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, chair of the Chernihiv City Military Administration, provided incomplete information in response to a query by Suspilne Chernihiv journalists. The journalists were asking for the full names of all Chernihiv CMA staff, among other questions);
• in Ternopil (20 Khvylyn only received the full data on the salaries of the Mayor and all his assistants, advisors, and deputies after appealing to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights).

Read the full monitoring 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).