May 5, 2017

Ukraine media environment improved, challenges remain, says Freedom House

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Freedom House’s graphics about press freedom worldwide in 2016.

Occupied Crimea among worst in press freedom

KYIV – Crimea is the fourth least press-friendly territory or country in the world, independent democracy watchdog Freedom House found in its latest report on press freedom published in April.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s media environment, according to the Freedom of the Press report, “has significantly improved since a change in government in 2014, and ongoing reforms continue to strengthen the legislative environment for journalists and outlets.”

Notably, only North Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were rated worse than Crimea, which was rated separately from Ukraine.

Human Rights groups in and outside Ukraine have said civil liberties, including freedom of the press, have sharply deteriorated since Russia illegally occupied the Ukrainian peninsula of 2.3 million people in March 2014.

Crimean Tatars, who numbered around 300,000 before the Russian invasion, and ethnic Ukrainians have been subject to kidnappings, arbitrary detentions and prosecution on trumped of charges of either “extremism” or “terrorism.” Only Russian state-controlled media currently operate in Crimea.

Over all, the report covering the year 2016 said, only 13 percent of the world’s population lives in countries that boast a free press. Forty-two percent live in counties whose press is “partly free,” and 45 percent in countries where the media is “not free.” Freedom House noted that “Eurasia continues to be the worst-performing region in the world for press freedom.”

The Washington-based non-profit hasn’t yet published a full report on Crimea or Ukraine.

The report made available did state that Ukraine remained in the “partly free” bracket with a score of 53 out of 100, where the highest score denotes a total clampdown on media freedom. Geographically, Ukraine is in the Eurasia category of the report where Georgia and Moldova are the only other countries that are partly free – the remaining 10 countries or territories in this region, including Russia (with a score of 83), are “not free.”

In particular, Ukraine was criticized for banning certain Russia media outlets that are considered independent, like the Dozhd television station because it used a “map depicting Crimea as part of Russia.”

“Meanwhile, faced with Kremlin-controlled outlets that disseminate disinformation, undermine the legitimacy of Ukrainian institutions and exacerbate Ukraine’s security crisis, Kyiv has turned to restrictions, limiting access to numerous Russian outlets and denying entry to dozens of Russian journalists,” the Freedom House report stated.

Kyiv’s reaction, according to the report, was prompted by the “Kremlin’s propaganda drive” that aims to control “narratives on Crimea and Donbas, as well as perceptions of Russia and the West,” and which is “attempting to undermine the country’s sovereignty and the legitimacy of its institutions.”

Ukraine was praised for making media ownership transparent and for making progress toward establishing a public broadcaster. Freedom House also cited Kyiv’s plans to sell 244 state-owned print outlets to safeguard their “editorial independence from state influence.”

Criticism focused on authorities attempting to foster so-called patriotic reporting in which only positive stories are reported, which raises “questions about the government’s commitment to media autonomy.” For example in June 2016, President Petro Poroshenko asked that journalists “refrain from covering negative stories about Ukraine,” the report noted.

Other concerns were that journalistic access to the war zone in the Russian-occupied Donbas remained restricted. The democracy watchdog also voiced concern when in May 2016 the website Myrotvorets published the personal information of “5,000 Ukrainian and foreign media professionals who had received accreditation from separatist authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk to report on the conflict.”

Violence, harassment and other abuses of journalists are “challenges” that Ukrainian authorities still face, the report stated.

“In the most alarming case of the year, a car bomb killed prominent journalist Pavel Sheremet in July,” according to Freedom House.

The Freedom House report released on April 28 is titled “Freedom of the Press 2017: Press Freedom’s Dark Horizon.” It may be read at https://freedomhouse.org/.

The worst and the best

Freedom House explains: “The level of press freedom in each country and territory is evaluated through 23 methodology questions divided into three broad categories: the legal environment, the political environment and the economic environment.”

Of the 66 countries and territories designated by Freedom House as not free, the following 10 have the worst total scores: North Korea (98), Turkmenistan (98), Uzbekistan (95), Crimea (94), Eritrea (94), Cuba (91), Equatorial Guinea (91), Azerbaijan (90), Iran (90) and Syria (90).

The top 10 countries rated as free are: Norway (8), the Netherlands (11), Sweden (11), Belgium (12), Denmark (12), Finland (12), Switzerland (13), Luxembourg (14), Andorra (15) and Iceland (15).

The United States had a press freedom score of 23, while Canada scored 18.

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