Khmelnytskyi City and District Court ordered the police to enter data on the refusal by the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning (SIAUP) to admit ZHAR.INFO journalist Alyona Bereza to a hearing into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations.
The ruling to that effect, which the news outlet shared with the Institute of Mass Information for review, was passed on 20 April 2026.
The court granted the claim by of the NGO Women’s Anti-Corruption Movement (basis for ZHAR.INFO’s operations) and ordered the Khmelnytskyi District Police to add the data from the statement filed on 18 March 2026 into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations.
According to the court files, Alyona Bereza contacted the police with a statement on obstruction of reporting after being barred from attending a hearing in a case tried by the SIAUP in Khmelnytskyi. The statement was filed in the log journal, but proceedings were not opened.
The police claimed that their inspection findings was “insufficient” to confirm whether a criminal offense had occurred, therefore they had no grounds for entering the data into the URPTI.
However, the court stressed that in accordance with Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the investigator or prosecutor has to enter such data into the URPTI within 24 hours after a statement is filed.
The court concluded that the journalist’s statement contained details that may point to a criminal offense, therefore the failure to enter the data into the Register was negligence by the police.
At the same time, the court refused to grant the NGO’s request to order the police to notify the applicant about the start of the investigation, noting that this should be done according to the existing procedure.
ZHAR.INFO’s Alyona Bereza was barred from attending the a hearing at the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning (SIAUP) in Khmelnytskyi on 18 March 2026. According to the journalist, the decision was made by the SIAUP chief inspector of construction supervision, Yulia Mazur. The official claimed that as per her regulations, such hearings are not supposed to involve outsiders and that the defendant in the case was unwilling to have journalists present.
After the incident, the journalist contacted the police and filed a statement on obstruction of reporting.
IMI lawyer Volodymyr Zelenchuk has said that the trial procedure for urban planning-related cases does not bar journalists or any other persons from attending the hearings, thus the situation may constitute obstruction of legal reporting.