Over 41% of journalists believe that the freedom of speech in Ukraine has deteriorated – IMI survey

41.1% of journalists surveyed by the IMI believe that the freedom of speech in Ukraine has deteriorated in 2023.

Such are the results of an anonymous quantitative online survey carried out by the Institute of Mass Information on December 4–26, 2023 using the questionnaire method. 164 journalists from all oblasts of Ukraine took part in the survey.

For comparison: in 2022, there were slightly more pessimists among the respondents – 43.4%. (At that time, the IMI received a total of 229 responses from media workers from all oblasts of Ukraine).

This year, 33.6% of respondents believe that the freedom of speech situation in Ukraine has not changed over the year (in 2022, it was 21.1%).

There were slightly fewer optimists in 2023 than in 2022 – 4.1% of the journalists the IMI surveyed said that the freedom of speech situation had improved (last year 5.3% had this response).

At the same time, 21.2% were unable to answer the question or give their assessment of the freedom of speech situation in Ukraine.