In Kherson city council, journalists were forbidden to come close to council members during sessions

Today, on December 18, in Kherson, local journalists were warned that during the session of local council, that the standing order rules that they do not have a right to approach close to council members. The notification about this was mailed to joutnalists by press service of the city council,  Most reports.

The members of the council agree that this regulation was introduced by those who are afraid that their personal documents and phone screens can be photographed by journalists. Some of the council member promise to cancel this regulation that severely restricts the locations where journalists are allowed to be during the council sessions.

As IMI informed before, it is not within the powers of local self government bodies to impose bans on presence of journalists, and accreditation procedure was originally meant to make access to the events easier for the journalists, not harder. Lawyers of IMI  had to issue this reminder because the cases of limiting access of journalists to local self-government bodies sessions became quite common all around Ukraine. In particular, such cases were revealead in Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya and Lutsk.