During the year, 143 attacks on journalists were recorded in Ukraine
Chairman of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine Sergei Tomilenko said that since the beginning of 2017, there have been 143 attacks on journalists, and only 14 of them have been brought to court.
He said this during public hearings on the physical safety of journalists and the state of freedom of speech, the organization’s website reports.
According to him, the situation with the safety of journalists is extreme, as evidenced by the monthly monitoring of the danger of journalists in Ukraine.
“Over the course of 9 months, we recorded 64 incidents of physical aggression against journalists. In total, since the beginning of 2017, we have recorded 143 incidents of the use of force against journalists,” Tomilenko said.
“For each, we sent requests to the National Police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the GPU and the SBU. We received information that out of 143 incidents, 14 situations were referred to the court,” he added.
He issued a Declaration in Defense of Free Speech ahead of the 2019 presidential election. In this document, the NUJU calls on all candidates for the post of head of state to declare and comply with 7 principles.
In particular, they must respect freedom of speech, not take any action that unlawfully restricts these freedoms and publicly condemn such cases, and not interfere with the work of the media or put pressure on them.
In addition, candidates must promise not to use law enforcement agencies to harass journalists, and law enforcement officials must commit to annually publicly reporting on the results of investigations into crimes against members of the media.
The declaration notes that presidential candidates must respect all media workers, respect current legislation in the field of freedom of speech, and legislative innovations must be agreed upon with the journalistic community.
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