Freedom House is disappointed with Ukraine
In Ukraine, the rating of media independence has decreased, which is under pressure from high-ranking officials.
The director of the Ukrainian representative office of Freedom House, Matthew Schaaf, said this in an interview with the Kyiv online publication “Apostrophe”, answering a question about the reasons why the new report of his organization for the first time since 2014 recorded a decline in the level of democracy in Ukraine.
“We believe that in Ukraine the balance in the field of freedom of press and expression is moving in the wrong direction, which is why the rating of media independence has decreased. This is one of the factors in the decline in the level of democracy. Of course, the government must ensure the security of the country. But now we see political influence from high-ranking officials who put pressure on journalists, quite often in response to criticism by asking: who are you fighting for? What country do you work for?” the human rights activist noted.
“This concerns the situation with violations of human rights by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (this also happens, unfortunately), and insufficiently rapid progress in reforms. Sometimes people say that writing badly about Ukraine means that you are not a patriot, that you are undermining the country, and so on. We believe that this is political pressure, which, of course, affects press freedom in the country,” Schaaf added.
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