On December 24, 2024, Liza Kuzmenko, the head of Women in Media, took part in a meeting under the communication platform aimed at strengthening collaboration between law enforcement agencies, civil society institutions, and human rights organizations.
Kateryna Pavlichenko, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, emphasized that to enhance the platform’s efficiency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has increased the number of participants. For example, teams from the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine, the Office for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances, the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Migration Service have been involved. Also, plans are underway to integrate the Security Service of Ukraine into future work as part of the National Strategy.
Special attention was given to the participation of new NGOs, including Women in Media.
Key topics of the meeting:
During the meeting, several pressing issues were discussed.
Dmytro Bohatiuk, head of the Office for Missing Persons, discussed the work of the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Missing Persons. He highlighted the processes of maintaining records, gathering information about missing persons, and emphasizing the importance of communication with their relatives.
Alina Andrushchenko, head of the Human Rights Monitoring Unit at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, provided information on the Ministry’s legislative initiatives aimed at combating discrimination.
Independent expert Liudmyla Yankina emphasized the importance of collaboration between law enforcement officers and human rights defenders in criminal proceedings involving representatives of civil society.
Liza Kuzmenko, head of the Women in Media NGO, highlighted the issue of crimes in the digital space, specifically addressing gender-based online violence targeting journalists, human rights defenders, and activists.
Discussion results
The participants agreed to continue their collaboration through working groups, including one dedicated to investigating cybercrimes against public activists and journalists and preventing such offenses.
Women in Media continues to document cases of online violence, bringing greater attention to this problem. It is worth noting that the organization developed the Map of Online Attacks on Ukrainian Journalists with the support of the Dutch Foreign Ministry as part of the project “Strengthening the Resilience of Women Journalists in Ukraine: Combating Online Violence and Gendered Disinformation.”
In addition, a new investigation by Texty.org.ua and Women in Media, supported by UNESCO, titled Spoonful of hate. Online violence against Ukrainian female journalists in YouTube comments has been published. The data-driven material analyzes online violence targeting female journalists through comments on the YouTube platform.
Comments like “Hahahaha. That lady is just a stupid chicken!” are common under news videos on YouTube. Aggression, harassment, sexism, and threats directed at female journalists are all forms of gender-based online violence.
The investigation highlights how journalists are targeted with aggressive and hateful statements due to their professional activities. For the analysis, the authors examined 10 of the most popular Ukrainian-language YouTube news channels, media channels from the White List, and recent videos featuring at least one woman as a presenter or interviewer.
In total, 2,300 such videos were identified across 15 channels, with 285,000 comments analyzed. Of these comments, 9% contained at least one form of gender-based online violence.
Online violence poses a serious threat with both digital and real-world consequences, aiming to intimidate women in media and suppress freedom of speech. Women in Media calls on society and authorities to actively collaborate in addressing this issue.