City council of Lutsk introduces pass control and requests mass media to provide lists of their journalists

Department of information of Lutsk city council sent to a number of mass media a letter informing them that starting from March 1, access to the city council will be restricted and pass-based. This was reported to IMI by IMI representative in Volynska oblast, Maya Holub. According to her, she and several other journalists received this latter today, on February 22. The letter requests to send to the council lists of their journalists who will cover the city council sessions by February 23. The head of the department of information work of Lutsk city council Zoya Baliuk assured IMI representative that introducing this access limitation "will not affect the work of journalists". She also said they do not plan introducing actual passes, they just want a security guard at the entrance to have the list of journalists. She also claimed that the journalists who are not on the list will be able to get to the city council building, but someone from the relevant department will need to come down to the entrance to pick them up. IMI media lawyer Maksym Ratushnyi commented that the main thing is to have the rules of the pass system that are not in any way contradicting to the requirements of the legislation in effect.