Over 200 Freedom Of Speech Violations Recorded In Ukraine In 2018 - Report

The Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information (IMI) registered 235 cases where the freedom of speech was violated in Ukraine in 2018, according to the results of the IMI's Freedom of Speech Barometer report, which was released on the institute's website on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2019) The Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information (IMI) registered 235 cases where the freedom of speech was violated in Ukraine in 2018, according to the results of the IMI's Freedom of Speech Barometer report, which was released on the institute's website on Thursday.

"In 2018, the IMI registered 235 cases of violation of freedom of speech on the territory of Ukraine," the report read.

The IMI specified that these statistics did not maintain a record on the offenses committed against journalists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.

The institute recalled that a total of 281 violations were registered in 2017.

The IMI conducts a monthly assessment of the level of freedom of speech in Ukraine based on the following criteria: cases of physical aggression, censorship and access to the information, economic and political pressure, judicial pressure, and cybercrime with regard to mass media and journalists.

According to international rights watchdogs, journalists frequently have their rights violated and face intimidation in Ukraine, whose authorities not only fail to ensure a favorable work environment and protection for reporters, but also create obstacles to their activities.

In October, for example, the Ukrainian parliament ordered the licenses of the 112 Ukraine and NewsOne tv channels to be canceled for disseminating propaganda of the aggressor state, which Kiev considers Russia to be.

The following month, head of the Ukrainian journalist union Sergiy Tomilenko said that over 150 cases of attacks on journalists were registered in 2017, adding that there were no precedents for effectively punishing the attackers. He added that the Ukrainian authorities did not protect journalists enough.

The arrest of RIA Novosti Ukraine web portal chief Kirill Vyshinsky is among other most talked cases illustrating the deterioration of journalists' rights in Ukraine. He was detained in Kiev on May 15 on suspicion of supporting the breakaway eastern Ukrainian regions and treason. Vyshinsky's detention has prompted widespread condemnation by journalists' rights groups, which have called it undemocratic.