On November, IMI recorded 17 cases of violation of freedom of speech

In November, IMI experts recorded a total of 17 cases of violations of journalists' rights in Ukraine. Of these, 9 concerned physical aggression against journalists. These are the figures of monthly monitoring held by the “Institute of Mass Information” (“Freedom of Speech Barometer").

Obstruction and restriction of access to information were found out to be the main violations of journalists' rights that month - 4 cases respectively. In October, six cases (obstacles) and five cases (restriction of access) were revealed.

Representatives of local authorities, state-owned companies, and ordinary citizens prevented journalists from doing their work. Journalists were prevented from recording video, their microphones were snatched, and they were not allowed to attend meetings despite the press accreditation.

The access of journalists to information was restricted by representatives of local authorities and law enforcement agencies. In particular, in the Kropyvnytskyi operational meeting in the regional state administration were closed for journalists. Poltava journalists have accused the territorial administration of the State Bureau of Investigation of concealing information about the forthcoming press conference. Also, IMI recorded a denial of the regional department of State Fund for Support of Youth Housing Construction in Zaporizhzhya to reply to the request of information from Zaporizhzhya Center of Investigations.

Besides that, IMI recorded two cases of beatings, threats and legal pressure on journalists.

The IMI experts recorded incidents of beatings and attacks in Kyiv region and in Mykolaiv. Thus, in the village of Dudarkiv, Kyiv region, village chairman Mykola Guralnyk hit the journalist with “1+1” TV channel Artem Kwashin and drove him on the hood of his car after he and his colleagues tried to ask him questions about corruption.

In Mykolaiv, some unknown people sprayed gas in the eyes of the correspondent of the local edition of "Novosti-N" Oleksander Vlashchenko. After that, he was punched in the face several times.

The threats, in particular, were revealed as former deputy of the presidential administration of Yanukovych, Andriy Portnov, made public the number plates of three cars, which he said were related to Radio Liberty journalists.

IMI recorded one case for following categories: damage to journalists' property, cyberattacks and lawsuits against the media.

IMI revealed cases of violations of freedom of expression and rights of journalists in nine regions of Ukraine. Most violations were took place in Kyiv : six cases, then two cases were recorded in Volyn region, Poltava regions and Chernivtsi respectively. In other regions IMI recorded one case for each.

Thus, since the beginning of the year, IMI has recorded 226 cases of violations of journalists' rights. In particular, one murder case, 93 cases of obstruction, 34 cases of threats, 20 cases of beating, 21 cases of restriction of access to public information and 16 cases of cyber attacks.