Journalist barred from attending Dnipro City Council meeting

Dnipro.media reporter Valeria Tokar was not allowed into the session hall during the February 19, 2025 Dnipro City Council meeting, Dnipro.media chief editor Nika Yehorova reports to Kateryna Lysiuk, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Dnipropetrovska oblast.

Yehorova says that the editorial office had submitted a query to the City Council in advance, asking if the journalist could be present at the meeting. When Valeria Tokar arrived at the building, she was met by Natalya Kuzmina, the chief specialist of the City Council's media support department, who immediately lead her onto the balcony.

When the journalist asked, “Why here, and not to the session hall?” the official replied that she had been instructed to take the reporter to the balcony. When the journalist tried to enter the session hall, men who were probably from the communal company Municipal Guard did not let her in, arguing that "We don't know anything. We were told to let you all out onto the balcony."

Dnipro.media reporter Valeria Tokar on the balcony of the Dnipro City Council session hall. Photo by Dnipro.media

Dnipro.media chief editor Nika Yehorova says that “a very odd story is unfolding” in Dnipro with reporters and the community's access to the City Council sessions.

“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, just entering the City Council building has been impossible, especially so on session days. First, you need to submit a request in advance asking to be present at the session (this is a mandatory condition for both the media and the community); during the sessions all entrances to the building are shut (both the main one and the side door); media workers and public activists (those who were allowed to cover the session) are met at the entrance by representatives of the Dnipro City Council’s support department and led into the City Council building and onto the balcony. Municipal Guard employees line the entire route, standing on the street and inside the building, forming a living corridor. And City Council representatives are on the balcony throughout the session, as if watching over those present,” says Yehorova.

She adds that the director of the City Council’s operations department, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, was on the balcony during the whole session. When asked by the journalist why she was not allowed into the session hall, he said: “I don’t know, I’m only responsible for escorting you to the balcony!”

"The balconies in the City Council session hall always used to be open. Until a couple of months ago, when they installed noise-absorbing double-glazed windows on these balconies for almost 400 thousand hryvnias from the budget, so as not to hear questions from the community and 'so that their shouting doesn’t interfere with their work,'" says Nika Yehorova.

While the Dnipro.media journalist was on the balcony, representatives of another Dnipro media outlet – the communal enterprise Dnipro Studio Television (Dnipro TV) – were moving freely around the hall, filming the entire meeting.

Dnipro TV filming crew working in the Dnipro City Council session hall. Photos by Dnipro.media and Kateryna Lysiuk

IMI representative Kateryna Lysiuk asked Yulia Vitvytska, the City Council press office representative, for a comment on the selective access of the media to the session hall. Vitvytska replied that employees of municipal media outlets worked in the session hall and they were only filming, thereby not interfering with the work of the Mayor and the deputy corps. When asked why the journalists were taken to the balcony and not released until all the deputies had left the City Council building, she responded, "Such was the order." And when asked who gave the order, she told Kateryna Lysiuk to submit an information query.

The IMI representative has submitted a query asking about the situation and the decisions that led to it.

IMI lawyer Volodymyr Zelenchuk notes that barring the journalist from attending open council meetings is an obstacle to her legal reporting.

He says that it is a violation not just of the Law of Ukraine “On Information”, but of the Dnipro City Council's own regulations as well.

He remarks that free access to local councils' plenary sessions for mass media representatives is guaranteed by Article 25 of the Law "On Information" and that a journalist lacking credentials cannot be a reason for denying that journalist admission to open events held by a subject of government authority.

“That is, regardless of whether a journalist's presence is 'approved' by the Council or not, denying them access to open Council meetings is obstruction of their legal reporting,” explains Volodymyr Zelenchuk.

Furthermore, the lawyer reminds that Article 3 of the Rules of Procedure of the Dnipro City Council of the 8th convocation states that plenary sessions of council meetings, standing committee meetings, as well as meetings of temporary control committees and other Council committes are open and public, with journalists having free access.

“Which means that the Dnipro City Council officials responsible for the admission of journalists to council meetings are not only unlawfully give some accredited journalists preference over others, but also create obstacles (soundproof glass) in recording the meeting for journalists whose work is not funded by the Council itself. Such unlawful restrictions, even if only on the 'audio' part of a journalist's work, should also be considered obstruction of legal reporting," the lawyer said, adding that such actions by City Council officials should be assessed by the police and the Dnipro community.