Censorship in Ukrainian journalism during the war against Russia: fighting against propaganda or threat to freedom of speech?

Abstract

Within the state of war with Russia, Ukraine faces an extremely complex social and political situation. In this scenario, Ukrainian journalism suffers a difficult situation that could be affecting the democratic role of the profession and undermining fundamental rights. This study investigates the peculiarities of the current state of Ukrainian journalism and pays special attention to the impact on it of propaganda and oligarchy media ownership. In particular, the paper aims to advance knowledge on how the recent blocking of Ukrainian TV channels affects journalists' professional activities, and the right to freedom of speech in the country. To meet this goal, in-depth literature review, analysis of secondary data and semi-structured online interviews with Ukrainian journalists are conducted. Results show that the private interests of media owners and the blocking of the TV channels affect journalism in undesirable ways, including a degradation of the right to freedom of speech in Ukraine.