In July, IMI registered 13 cases of freedom of press violation in Ukraine

In July, IMI experts registered 13 cases of violation of freedom of press in Ukraine in total (in January – 19, in February – 18, in March – 25, in April – 18, in May – 11, in June - 21). Of them, 12 were about physical aggression against journalists.

This is the data of the monthly monitoring of the Institute of Mass Information “Freedom of Press Barometer”.

Most registered violations were in the category “impediment to lawful journalist activities” - 8, yet in July, the number of such cases actually reduced compared to June.

Also, three cases of threats were registered, and one case of battery and judicial pressure. 

Only female journalists were the target of threats this month. Threats for their activities were received by Kateryna Serhatskova, Iryna Fedoriv and Liubov Velychko. The journalists were bullied and threatened via social networks, their addresses of residence were published, there was even a case where a memorial tablet was installed on the residential house of journalist.

The journalists experienced obstructions, in particular, in Kyiv, where they were denied access to court sessions that attracted a lot of public interest (the case of murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet), in Volyn, journalists were not allowed to all locations when the president Volodymyr Zelensky had a working visit to the region, in Zaporizhzhia cameraman's camera got hit with a cane when he was taking footage, etc.

The violations were registered in six regions of the country. Of them, Kyiv is the leader - six cases, Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts - two cases each, Volyn, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava region - one case in each.

This month, female journalists experienced more violations of their rights compared to their male colleagues (six vs. four).

Therefore, since the beginning of the year, IMI registered the total of 125 violations of freedom of press, 69 cases of obstruction, 14 cases of beating, and 12 cases of threats.

You can find more details about the situation with freedom of press at the website of IMI in the section “Freedom of press barometer”.

Institute of mass information conducts monthly all-Ukrainian monitoring of freedom of press in the following categories: physical aggression, censorship and access to information, economic and political pressure, judicial pressure and cyber-crimes against mass media and journalists. The monthly report includes only cases related to freedom of press and professional journalism. More details about the methodology can be found here.