The Institute of Mass Information registered one murder, one kidnapping, 30 cases of assault and beating of media representatives, 108 cases of impeding journalists’ professional activities, 43 cases of threatening and intimidation, 30 cases of limiting access to public information and 7 cases of censorship in Ukraine in 2016. Meanwhile, last year the law enforcement bodies sent only 31 indictments on crimes committed with regard to journalists for further court proceedings.

On 3-4 April 2017 the seminar “Protection of professional activity of journalists and freedom of expression in Ukraine: countering impunity” was held on the premises of the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine for the representatives of the law enforcement bodies – patrol officers, investigators and prosecutors; judges, journalists and civil society activists from Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv regions. This event launched a series of similar seminars planned for 2017.

“The issue of safety of journalists and other media actors is an extremely important issue to which the Council of Europe pays systematic attention. Attacks on journalists and other media actors constitute a particularly serious violation of human rights because they are harmful not only to specific individuals but also deprive others of right to receive information, thus limiting the public dialogue, which is fundamental for the democratic society”, underlined Mårten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

The aim of the seminar was to raise awareness of the law enforcement representatives and judiciary on amendments to the criminal and criminal-procedural legislation; to improve the skills of application of the legislation on protection of the professional activity of journalists in Ukraine as well as to establish effective communication mechanisms between the representatives of media, civil society and the law enforcement representatives. Also, during the seminar the online “Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists” launched by the Council of Europe in 2015 was presented. In partnership with media organisations, the Platform monitors reported threats against journalists  in the Council of Europe member States and launches calls for action to safeguard the media freedom.

During the seminar approximately 250 representatives of the National Police, prosecutor’s offices, judges, representatives of the civil society organisations and journalists listened to the presentations of the key national and international experts. The trainers of the seminar  included the representatives of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Council of Europe international experts, Ukrainian media lawyers, representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office, academics of the National Academy of the Internal Affairs, media experts of the specialized civil society organisations.

The entry and final test evaluations of the participants’ knowledge on the subject of the event were conducted  at the beginning and at the end of the seminar, respectively. If at the beginning of the seminar there was no one who had not less then 19 correct answers (out of 22 possible), after trainers’ presentations 32% of the seminar participants had such result. In entry test evaluation 42% of seminar participants answered correctly to more than half questions (12-18), whilst in the final evaluation - 46%. Only 22 % of the seminar participants answered correctly to less than half of the questions of the final evaluation, whereas in the entry evaluation 57% of the participants did so.

The event was organised by the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine” in cooperation with Administration of the President of Ukraine, General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, National Police of Ukraine, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, non-governmental organisation “Institute of Mass Information”.

Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Freedom of the Media and Establishing a Public Broadcasting System in Ukraine” is aimed to enhance the role of media and the public broadcaster in particular as an instrument for consensus building in the Ukrainian society. The Project is implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2015-2017.