During the war between Russia and Ukraine, the rights of the press were violated more than 900 times

During the year of Russia’s war with Ukraine, more than 900 cases of attacks on journalists in these countries, censorship, violations of freedom of speech and persecution of the mass media were documented. This is stated in the report of the International Press Institute.

The authors of the document note that the Russian authorities are responsible for 80% of violations.

On the territory of Ukraine, the Institute of the Press recorded 300 threats to journalists, including 100 cases of attacks, by Russian forces since the beginning of the war.

Dozens of mass media workers found themselves in the areas of hostilities under the threat of Russian shelling. More than 30 members of the press were injured. 12 journalists died – most of them in the line of duty.

The institute recorded about 30 cases of attacks on the Ukrainian media infrastructure, as well as several dozen cyberattacks on Ukrainian news agencies.

In Russia, since the beginning of the armed invasion, 610 violations of media rights have been recorded. Most of them are related to censorship, arrests of correspondents and regulations that prevent journalists from doing their work.

The authors of the report counted about 200 cases of blocking of Russian news sites for reporting on the war. At least 160 journalists were detained, arrested and brought to justice, mostly for covering anti-war protests.

• Due to the appearance in the Russian legislation of an article about fakes about the Russian army after the attack on Ukraine, the majority of independent mass media were forced to suspend their work or refuse to cover the war. Media employees left en masse for other countries in order to continue their work and avoid criminal prosecution.
• The Russian authorities call any information about the war in Ukraine, different from the version of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, fake. According to the criminal article on spreading fakes, he faces up to 15 years in prison. According to human rights activists, this article actually introduced military censorship in the country.