Over 280 violations of freedom of speech registered in Ukraine last year

Oksana Romaniuk, the executive director of the NGO “Institute of Mass Information”, representative of the Reporters Without Borders in Ukraine, said this during a roundtable dedicated to the World Press Freedom Day at the Ukrinform agency.

"We recorded 281 violations of freedom of speech in Ukraine in 2017. So far I have the impression that we are in hang state and we need some movement... Now we should take additional measures to improve the protection of freedom of speech," she said.

Romaniuk added that private individuals had been the main violators of the rights of journalists (156 attacks in 2017).

"They were participants in protest actions, participants in road accidents, teachers, doctors. It is not a very good signal and shows a lack of confidence in journalists in the society," she said.

The IMI executive director noted that the violations of freedom of speech had occurred most often in Kyiv region (80 cases), Lutsk region (24), Mykolayiv region (20), Poltava region (18), Odesa region (15). In addition, 16 violations of freedom of speech were recorded in Crimea.

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