Police close case on preventing journalists from entering Mykolaiv City Council

Mykolaiv police have closed a criminal investigation launched after journalists were denied access to the city council building.

As stated in the response of Kyrylo Barashkovskyi, Head of the Investigation Department of the Main Department of the National Police in Mykolaiv Oblast, to a request from Kateryna Sereda, a regional representative of the Institute of Mass Information, no grounds for further investigation were found.

As a reminder, in May 2024, journalists from «NikVesti» tried to get to the city council after a staff meeting to get comments from officials. However, they were not allowed in, explaining this by the new rules of the access regime. According to them, media representatives can visit the building only with one-time electronic passes issued through the organisational department of the city council, and only when accompanied by employees of the information support department.

On 26 July 2024, following the publication of the Institute of Mass Information, the police opened a criminal investigation into possible obstruction of the professional activities of journalists.

However, during the investigation, law enforcement officers did not find any elements of a crime.

«On 22 October 2024, the criminal proceedings were closed on the basis of Article 284(1)(2) of the CPC of Ukraine (absence of corpus delicti - note). At the moment, the decision to close the case has not been cancelled»,- the police said in a response.

«Despite numerous positive changes, the activity of journalists in Mykolaiv raises important questions about ensuring full transparency and accountability of the authorities. The closure of the criminal case on the fact that journalists were not allowed to enter the city hall highlights the need to strengthen control over the observance of the rights of media representatives. This is a signal for further improvement of the dialogue between the authorities and journalists, as only through an open exchange of information can full accountability and public trust in state institutions be achieved»," commented Kateryna Sereda, a representative of the Institute of Mass Information in Mykolaiv region, in her blog post.

As a reminder, Olena Kiselyova, head of the Mykolaiv City Council's Standing Committee on Publicity, Legality and Deputy Ethics, said she had personally faced the problem of access to the city council building.

Senkevych: Mykolaiv wants to become an example of transparency of city authorities

At the end of 2023, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that he considered Mykolaiv «to be an exemplary example of transparency». Then, in an interview with LIGA.net, the mayor of Mykolaiv, answering the question «Do you consider Mykolaiv the most open city?», answered in the affirmative.

— We were checked by the police, we were checked by everyone - and everyone was very pleased and surprised that we had such a level of preparation," said Oleksandr Senkevych at the time.

At the time, he said he believed that other cities in Ukraine should follow Mykolaiv's example.

In September 2023, Deloitte conducted a good governance and integrity audit of the municipal utility «Mykolaivvodokanal». At the time, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that other utilities and institutions would undergo such an audit in the future.

— We want our anti-corruption department to work more effectively. We have enterprises that use budgetary funds, and they must also undergo these procedures," said Mr Senkevych.

The mayor of Mykolaiv believes that the main condition for support from international partners is transparent work of all departments in the city's management structure.

— Mykolaiv wants to become an example for other cities in terms of transparency of processes and use of budget funds, - he said.

In June last year, the International Republican Institute (IRI) presented the results of the Ninth Municipal Survey, which examined the socio-political situation in the regions, including public sentiment and satisfaction with the quality of services provided by local authorities. The results of the survey showed that, in particular, 35% of the city's residents approve of the performance of Mykolaiv City Council, and 36% of the city's residents support the mayor. Commenting on the results of the survey, which showed that almost half of the city's residents believe that things in the city are going in the wrong direction, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevych, said that the media are responsible for creating negative «sentiments» among the population.

What about access to Mykolaiv City Hall?

As you know, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, journalists have not had access to events or official meetings held in the city council building for security reasons. However, the practice of restricting journalists' access to the Mykolaiv City Council was introduced in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At that time, Andriy Volkov, the executive committee's chief of staff, said that such restrictions were being tested, in particular because of the SBU's requirement to control all visitors to Mykolaiv City Hall. That is, before entering the city hall, visitors, including journalists, have to say who they want to address and what issue they want to address. After that, the guards write down this information, call the representative of the city hall to whom the visitor came, who goes down to the checkpoint and picks up his guest.

However, the official also voiced another version of why access to the city council building was restricted for journalists. According to Andriy Volkov, officials feel uncomfortable with the fact that everything they say becomes news, which changes their behaviour at working meetings in the presence of the media.

At the time, Mykolaiv City Hall also said that access to the city council building was restricted in accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 939 «For official use only».

It should be noted that all meetings of the sessions of the Mykolaiv City Council, as well as deputy commissions and meetings of the executive committee, have been held online for the third year since the beginning of the full-scale war. Mykolaiv city mayor's staff meetings with officials are also closed to the media. Unlike the Mykolaiv City Council, in May 2024, journalists were granted access to the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada to cover the work of the parliament during plenary sessions in the same way as during the covid pandemic.

As a reminder, in 2023, the Mykolaiv Regional Council, contrary to the regulations, refused to allow «NikVesti» to attend the session, which was scheduled to be held remotely.

Roman Golovenko, a lawyer at the Institute of Mass Information, said that the Mykolaiv Regional Council had no right to deny journalists access to the regional council meeting, but should only warn them of the security risks.