In Lvivska oblast, number of lawsuits against journalists increased significantly – National Association of Journalists of Ukraine

In Lvivska oblast, in the year following the Revolution of Dignity, the number of lawsuits against journalists increased several times. Vice-head of the National Association of Journalists Andriy Bolkun informed about this at a press conference on May 19.

“Surprisingly, in the year following the Revolution of Dignity, freedom of press did not improve in Ukraine. Compared to Yanukovych’s criminal regime, the number of lawsuits against journalists increased several times. In fact, in every rayon, we have complicated relations between mass media and the authorities, with political parties, with businessmen, who often chose a court trial as the main tool of dealing with media outlets...” – Andriy Bolkun said.

Also, according to him, the case of the correspondent of the newspaper "Narodna Sprava", Vasyl Hrysiuk, who went missing, is still being investigated, with no apparent results. The case of last year, when in Boryslav, right in the town hall, an editor-in-chief of a local newspaper was taken hostage and illegally held there, also remains unresolved – the police did not even want to initiate a case and had to be pressured to start formal investigation. Often, against the law "On press in Ukraine" which clearly states that journalists cannot be brought to responsibility just for quoting, courts still accept claims against journalists based just on a quote they made.