Only 2% of journalists think there is no censorship in Ukraine

Ukrainian journalists estimate the state of freedom of speech in their country at a fairly high level, but they think censorship still exists, according to a poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

The director of the foundation, Iryna Bekeshkina, presented the results of the poll at a press conference on Thursday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"In general, journalists estimate the state of freedom of speech in Ukraine to be high enough - 7.6 points on a 10-point scale. [...] It is obvious that journalists did not lose this war, the war for freedom of speech," she said.

At the same time, Bekeshkina said that a significant part of respondents in their activities reported violations of freedom of speech and information. According to the survey, journalists often received the refusal of officials to provide them or the public with publicly important information - 78%, almost 43% were faced with the censorship of finished materials or the ban on their publication, and 13% of the interviewed media representatives reported attempts to prosecute them or their colleagues.

In addition, respondents said the greatest threats to freedom of speech were censorship by media owners - 70%, a low level of qualification of journalists - 53%, as well as physical threats or life threats related to journalism - 41%.

At the same time, when asked whether there is censorship in Ukraine, 12% of respondents said it was systematic, and 68% said it existed in individual media outlets. At the same time, only 2% said there was no censorship in Ukraine at all.

The poll was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation from May 3 to June 14, 2019, at the request of the Zmina Human Rights Center with the support of Freedom House Ukraine. A total of 127 journalists were interviewed.

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