We see three key areas of investigation regarding media – IMI executive
The international organizations' support for Ukrainian media is proof that independent Ukrainian journalism exists and that society needs it.
The Institute of Mass Information executive director, Oksana Romaniuk, said this at the press conference "Results of RSF's Work in Ukraine" on May 17.
"We hope that this visit will also provide impetus for the development and support of independent Ukrainian media," said Romaniuk.
She said that in the last few days, she and RSF representatives had had several meetings with the authorities. At these meetings, they discussed cooperation regarding attacks on journalists.
"Now we see three key areas of investigation. The first is investigating war crimes against the media, against reporters. As of today, we have filed over 500 such cases. More than 230 Ukrainian media offices have closed down," said the director of the Institute of Mass Information.
According to her, the second area is investigating the crimes against journalists which are committed by Ukrainian aggressors. In particular, this pertains to the media workers who were attacked by priests or parishioners while covering the recent events at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. At that time, IMI recorded five cases of obstruction of journalistic work.
"Last week, a journalist in Poltava was injured in an assault. Despite the fact that these cases are insanely numerous and the investigators' workload is huge, we still call on the authorities to prioritize the cases of attacks on reporters and investigate them promptly," said Oksana Romaniuk.
The third area of work, she said, is penalties for propagandists. Namely, on May 16, IMI published a new survey showing that 46 YouTube channels that call for the extermination of Ukrainians, call for genocide, are still available.
"These are channels like Zvezda. I think there is no point in me explaining what they are. Spas, Tsargrad and so on..." said Oksana Romaniuk.
She noted that, at the same time, Ukrainian media are being constantly reprimanded for reporting about the war.
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