Since the beginning of the year, the NGO "Institute of Mass Information" recorded as a whole 102 violations of freedom of speech on the territory of Ukraine.

For comparison, last year for the same period was recorded about the same number of violations (108 cases).

Such are the results of the monthly monitoring of the Institute of Mass Information "The Barometer of Freedom of Speech".

The largest number of violations in the five months of 2017 was recorded in the category "obstruction of the lawful professional activity of journalists" - 32 cases (in the same period of 2016 - 38 cases).

IMI states a decrease in physical aggression against journalists in Ukraine. Thus, for five months of this year, IMI experts recorded 6 cases of beatings and attacks on journalists. In comparison, during the same period last year, 18 cases of attacks and beatings were recorded.

This year, there is a tendency to increase the number of violations in the category of "access to public information". In particular, since the beginning of the year, IMI experts recorded 16 cases of violations related to access to information, and during the same period in 2016 - 7 such cases.

Another negative trend is the increase in the number of cases of damage to the property of journalists: since the beginning of the year there have been 8 such cases, in 2016 one case.

The regions with the highest number of violations this year were Kiev with the oblast (24 cases), Poltava (10 cases) and Mykolayiv region (8 cases). This year Poltava region was included in the list of anti-leader regions for the number of violations of freedom of speech: only in the second half of May there were six cases of violations of journalists' rights.

This year, the main aggressors and violators of journalists' rights were:

private persons - 58 cases, local authorities - 14 cases, law enforcement officers with law enforcement officers - 7 cases, judicial authority - 5 cases.

In addition, three cases of political pressure.

In the occupied Crimea, the IMI recorded 8 cases of violations of journalists' rights. Oppress freedom of speech on the peninsula mainly law enforcement authorities of the occupation authorities - employees of the FSB of Russia, Center "E".

Recall, today, June 6, Ukrainian journalists celebrate their professional holiday.