And their number has increased compared to last year. Apart from being victims of direct physical violence, journalists are often exposed to bodily harm threats, shadowing, insults, slander, obscenities posted in the social network to name but a few.

Facts and figures related to the safety of journalists were made public during the parliamentary hearings dubbed “Ensuring the safety of journalists’ work in Ukraine: problems and their solutions” that was held on November 6. Organized by the parliamentary committee on issues of freedom of speech, the hearings were attended by mainstream media people, public figures and scholars. They articulated their views of the situation involving the safety of journalistic activities and offered possible solutions to existing problems.

Verkhovna Rada Deputy Chairman, Olena Kondratyuk, reported on the work done by the legislature over the recent years. Quite a few laws have been passed to enhance responsibility for the harassment of mass media people. For instance, assaults on journalists are now considered similar to attacks on law-enforcement officers. The legislation has been passed to improve means of protection of professional journalistic activities. However, despite all these measures, the problems remain as acute as before, the Deputy Chairman of the Parliament stressed. She cited as an example the recent resonate cases of the murder of journalists. “Impunity is the major reason for continuous attacks against Ukrainian journalists. Only the unavoidability of a fair punishment can stop aggression”, she stressed.

In the words of Nestor Shufrych, head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech issues, the efficient protection of the right to freedom of speech is a key indicator by which a country is evaluated. Shufrych reminded that the first murder of a journalist in Ukraine happened in 1992 and since then until today more than 60 newsmen have been killed. Ninety-two percent of the crimes against mass media people remain unsolved. More than that, only one of every twelve criminal cases is brought to trial. Unfortunately, rights of journalists in Ukraine are well protected in paper only. “So, what’s the problem if the law prescribes in clear terms what should be done”, Shufrych went on the say. “The point is that our police response unwillingly to applications of journalists about threats. And an assault and battery are regarded as a mere act of hooliganism”. Shufrych concluded his speech with the sad news: Ukraine rates 102 in the world as far as the protection of freedom of speech is concerned.

According to Oleksandr Tkachenko, head of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian issues and information policy, crimes against journalists must be considered by special teams of prosecutors and investigators. “The other side of a medal consists in that that journalists and the mass media must be aware of their own responsibility before the public. Fake news, deliberate misinformation, assistance to the State-aggressor, the breach of the essential journalistic standards – all this is, unfortunately, the widespread practice of the recent years. We, at the committee, are working on a fundamental legislation about the mass media. We believe that this legislation will address all these challenges”, said Tkachenko.

Volodymyr Borodyansky, minister of culture, the youth and sports, also spoke about journalistic ethics. In his opinion, it is important to ensure effective protection of journalists but at the same time it is important to make tougher punishment for the dissemination of untrue statements and manipulative information.

In response to the comment of the minister, Serhiy Tomylenko, head of the National Union of Journalists, said that when a journalist sits down at a computer, he knows only too well that if he writes the truth about a law-breaker he might get in a serious trouble. “You better protect the life and health of a Ukrainian journalist which is his basic value. At first, his safety and only then threaten with a criminal responsibility”, said Tomylenko appealing to representatives of the authorities that were present at the parliamentary hearings.

“In our country, you must not hit the President only because he is a President”. With these words, Mykhailo Tkach, a reporter of “Schemes” (a joint project of Radio Liberty and the Ukrainian television channel “UA:First”) began his speech at the hearings. He went on to say that journalists in Ukraine are often beaten and threaten despite the fact that the law defends them and their professional activities. And the reason lies in the absence of reported cases of punishment of those who have threatened and attacked journalists rather than in flaws of the law. Tkach called upon the authorities to do their jobs well and guarantee the implementation of the law. Concluding his speech, the journalist said, “To those who do not want that we inform the society about under-the-carpet arrangements and clandestine meetings where business deals are cinched in the interests of private persons, I’d like to paraphrase Winston Churchill, an outstanding politician and journalist. We’ll photograph them on beaches, we’ll photograph them on seashores, we’ll photograph them in fields and streets, we’ll photograph them on hilltops. We are going on to photograph them and we’ll never give in”.

On the basis of the results of the parliamentary hearings, the Verkhovna Rada will have to pass relevant recommendations.

The newspaper Holos Ukrainy