Since the beginning of the year, in Ukraine there were 117 registered cases of violation of freedom of speech – IMI

In five months of 2018, IMI experts registered 117 cases of violations of freedom of speech in total in Ukraine, which were committed in 21 region of Ukraine. In the same period of 2017, less of similar cases were registered (101). these are the results of monthly monitoring of the Institute of Mass Information “Freedom of press barometer”. The top three violations in this period are cases of obstruction to journalist activities, beatings and threats, and intimidation of journalists. The largest number of violations in five months of 2018 was registered in the category “obstruction to legal professional activities of journalists” – 53 (in the same period of 2017 – 34 cases). Rapid increase in the category “obstruction” was registered by IMI experts in 2018, in February – 18 cases, and in May – 12 cases. The second most often encountered violation were the category “beatings and assaults” – 14, in 2017, this category was only on fourth place, with 7 occurrences. This year, threats were on the third place – 13 cases (in the same period of last year, threats were on the third place, with 15 occurrences). At the same time, since the beginning of the year, IMI registered reduction in number of cases related to limitation of access to public information. In particular, IMI experts registered 9 such cases. This category was the forth most numerous this year, and in the same period of 2017, the category was on the second position, with 16 occurrences. The region with most violations of journalists' rights since the beginning of the year was Kyiv, together with its oblast (54 cases). The next regions by the number of violations is Mykolaiv region (7 cases) and Odesa region (5 cases). In other more problematic regions, four cases in each were registered, and in others - three, two or one case. The violations that related to the rights of journalists to practice their profession, according to the monitoring, were committed by pivate individuals, local authorities and council members / MPs. This tendency is the same as in the previous year. More details about the condition of freedom of speech can be found on IMI website in section “Freedom of press barometer”.Institute of mass information conducts monthly all-Ukrainian monitoring of freedom of speech in the following categories: physical aggression, censorship and access to information, economic and political pressure, legal pressure and cyber-crimes against mass media and journalists. The monthly rating includes only the cases related to freedom of press and professional activities of journalists. More details about the methodology can be found here.