In Odesa region, journalist was sent away from village council session

On November 25 in the village of Kryzhanivka, Odeska oblast, the journalist of the TV company “Krug”, Serhiy Kolodiazhnyi, was sent away from the session of the local village council with the words “that’s all, good bye!”.

First, the chair of the session Natalia Krupitsa made a motion to forbid filming of the session, and when the journalist disagreed, they decided to make the session closed for public. The reason for doing this, according to the head of the council, was that the journalists know little about the procedure of the session and thus will likely misinform people about what happened there. Also, Krupitsa said that journalists in general come to sessions to “make provocations and to set up people against each other”. So the journalist was sent away, although he protested against such illegal actions. At this session, the issue was decided about how to use 2 million hryvnias of investment funds. So only those who were making the decision about it can now tell how the money was used.

  Local activists say that Mrs. Krupitsa has over 10 criminal cases started against her, yet she still continues to chair the village council.