In half year, Prosecutor's office registered 113 criminal offences committed against journalists

In the first half of 2016, the General Prosecutor's office registered 113 criminal offences committed against journalists. This information was given in the General Prosecutor's response to the request of IMI.

In particular, based on article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “Impediment to legal professional journalist activities”, there were 84 registered criminal offences. Of them, in 19 cases of criminal offences, the proceedings were closed. In 65 cases, the proceedings continue, of them in 2 cases of criminal proceedings, suspicion notices were issued.

Based on article 345-1 “Threat or violence against journalist”, in the past half-year period, the agencies of the prosecutor's office registered 28 criminal offences, of them in 3 cases the proceedings were closed. In 25 cases, the proceedings are pending, of them in 3 criminal offences suspicion notices were hand-delivered, in 2 cases of offences, criminal proceedings were sent to the court with an indictment.

In addition, 1 criminal offence was registered based on article 347-1 “Intentional destruction or damaging of journalist's property”. The proceeding for this case is pending.

As IMI reported earlier, the General Prosecutor's office reported, that as of April 28, law enforcers registered 64 facts of violations of journalists' rights in Ukraine, 11 of which were not confirmed.

In the first half of 2016, IMI experts registered in total 129 cases of freedom of press violations, compared to 143 cases for the same period of 2015.