In February, five journalists injured - Freedom of Speech Barometer

In February, five Ukrainian journalists were injured. In total, in February, IMI experts recorded 16 cases of violations of freedom of speech in Ukraine. And 12 of them were cases of physical aggression against journalists. These are the data of the monthly monitoring of the Institute of Mass Information “Freedom of Speech Barometer” *.

Journalists were bitten, beaten to a craniocerebral injury, broke a finger, they got cuts and bruises, leg injuries. 

Journalists were aggressed under various circumstances: at the workplace, during an inspection of a food establishment, filming a report on excise-free trade in cigarettes, attempts to record violations of lockdown.

Two cases were recorded in the categories “restriction of access to information” and “damage to journalists' property”. Two journalists had their cars damaged and set on fire.

Journalists of Odesa region claimed about restrictions on entry to the regional council and the regional state administration. 

In addition, one case was recorded in eachof the categories of “cybercrime” and “legal pressure”.

Violations were recorded in 10 regions of Ukraine. Kyiv became the leader (six cases), two cases were recorded in Odessa, and one was in each of the regions: Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhya, Cherkassy, Poltava, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv and Rivne.

The right of journalists to the profession had been violated mainly by private individuals, local authorities and officials, and the judiciary.

In total, 10 men journalists and one woman journalist faced prejudice to their rights in February.

Thus, since the beginning of the year, IMI has recorded a total of 28 cases of violations of freedom of speech, 13 cases of obstruction, six beatings and three restrictions on access to information.

Read more about the state of freedom of speech on the IMI website in the "Freedom of Speech Barometer" section .

The Institute of Mass Information conducts monthly all-Ukrainian monitoring of freedom of speech in the following categories: physical aggression, censorship and access to information, economic and political pressure, legal pressure and cybercrime against the media and journalists. Only cases related to freedom of speech and professional journalism are included in the monthly report. More details on methodologyare available here.

This study was made possible by the support of the American people through the USAID Media Program in Ukraine project, implemented by the international organization Internews Network. The contents are the sole responsibility of the Institute of Mass Information and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the US Government or the Internews Network.