Freedom of speech violations in Ukraine, 2015

The annual survey of the Institute of Mass Information "Freedom of Speech Barometer  exposes a decrease in the number of press freedom violations in the country: in 2015, 310 violations of the freedom of press were registered in the territoryof Ukraine not under occupation. Compared to the data recorded in the previous year (995), these are three times less than in 2014 (995 cases).

Categories with the largest number of violations are: obstruction to lawful professional activities of journalists (105 cases); beatings and assaults (58 cases) and threats and intimidation against journalists (39 cases registered).

Among the negative trends highlighted by IMI in 2015, the number of cases of restricting access to public information for journalists increased. This year, there were registered twice as many such cases (33), compared to last year (14).