In Kherson, journalists were not admitted to the session of commission for elections of rector of maritime academy

On February 13 in Kherson, members of the election commission were not admitting journalists to the session of the commission for elections of the rector of Kherson State Maritime Academy, at which the counting of votes took place, “Novyi Den” reports. As the media outlet pointed out, even the correspondent of the newspaper "Novyi Den", who obtained a preliminary accreditation for this specific event, was not allowed in. The head of the commission argued that the reason for this is the methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Education, approved as the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers as of 2014. “After the voting is over, the room is to be closed, and only members of the election commisison, representatives of the founders of the institution, candidates and observers may be inside. If we allow you to be present at counting of ballots, any observer will be able to protest that people that are not included based on the official procedure rules approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, were present there”, head of the Commisison, Valentyn Syn'ko, said. Therefore the journalist had to wait in the corridor, and to listen the session of the commission as video feed, at that, audio initially was not set up properly. The journalists and administration of their respective media outlets consider this violation of journalists' rights, as the presence of media representatives at such events is regulated by several Laws of Ukraine ("On information", "On access to public information", "On printed mass media"), not by decrees of the Cabinet o Ministers.