At prison, Kirovograd journalist was told to strip to her underwear

The journalist of Kirovograd media portal «Akula» Valentyna Holovan was forced to strip to her underwear and had to her personal belongings searched in Ustyniv correctional center No.37 to be able to see an inmate, who was reporting violations at the center and was supposed to give her video evidence of them. The journalist also faced obstruction to her work. Holovan herself reported this to the IMI regional correspondent.

On December 22, Holovan went to the village of Inhulske, Kirovogradska oblast, where the correctional center is located, to obtain the video evidence of violations at the center from the inmate who wanted to report them. She also intended to talk to residents of the village, whose infrastructure is tightly connected to that of the center.

Holovan was ordered to have her personal belongings searched and to take off her clothes. The correctional center officer who conducted the search forbade the journalist to use the audio recorder. When the journalist was talking to the inmate in the visiting room,

another woman working for the correctional facility burst in and started to curse the journalist and prevent her from talking to the inmate.

After the visit, Holovan went to the village to talk to the locals, and during the entire time she spent there she was followed by several officers from the correctional facility. When she was talking to the village head they even burst into his office and prevented her from talking to him. When she tried to make a video of the men that followed her one of them hit her camera with his palm.