Investigative journalists in Ukraine came under two attacks in just the past week, one involving a threatening home visit and another using covert surveillance.

The two incidents are the latest in a series of discrediting campaigns against independent Ukrainian media, often supported by anonymous pro-government Telegram channels, raising concerns about increasing pressure on press freedom in wartime Ukraine.

“These are not ordinary cases when journalists are obstructed by (someone’s) security guards, for example, or not allowed to go somewhere,” Oksana Romaniuk, the head of the Institute of Mass Information, a Ukrainian NGO monitoring violations of freedom of speech, told the Kyiv Independent.

“This is systematic work aimed at discrediting journalists, making them some kind of enemies of the people, so that they and their investigations are not trusted,” Romaniuk said.

Ukrainian and international media organizations called on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately react to the attacks on journalists and establish those responsible. President Volodymyr Zelensky briefly commented on the issue a day after the latest attack. Without naming the media that was targeted, he said that “any pressure on journalists is unacceptable.”

Archive