Journalists for UNIAN and Watchers.Media not allowed to Pechersk court sitting
On March 26, the journalist for Watchers.Media Alina Kondratenko and correspondent for UNIAN news agency Dmytro Khilyuk were denied access the hearing of the Pechersk District Court in Kyiv to choose a measure of restraint for activist Roman Ratushny on suspicion of hooliganism during a protest on May 20 near Office of the President. Alina Kondratenko and Dmytro Khilyuk reported it to IMI.
According to journalists, on March 25, they filed a petition with the court for the possibility of participating in the court hearing. However, today they were denied access, since they were not listed as persons to be allowed to attend the hearing. Judicial guards and court spokesman Vitaliy Cherhavy justified it with quarantine restrictions.
“The order of the chairman of the court was to limit the number of people in the courtroom: 10 people due to lockdown measures. The judge personally decides who was to be let inside ”, Dmytro Khilyuk said.
Alina Kondratenko noted that she did not understand the criteria for selecting journalists for the hearing.
"Today, I found out that I am again not among the journalists whom the judge decided to admit to the hearing. The court guard had six petitions from the media, which the judge Kristina Konstantinova, according to the court guards, decided to allow to let in. As a journalist, I do not understand the criteria by which a judge, so to speak, selects the journalists, ”she said.
Instead, journalists of Channel 5, 1 + 1, the online edition Hraty, NPTU, and Channel 4 were allowed to enter.
Dmytro Khilyuk supposed that TV channels were probably a priority.
As IMI reported, on March 23, journalist of the media project Watchers.Media Alina Kondratenko was not allowed to attend a hearing of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv to choose a measure of restraint for veteran Vladyslav Granetsky-Stafiychuk (Sorda) for the rally under the President's Office.
The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv advised IMI to address them an official request.
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