Kharkiv journalists prevented from filming in a public space without the mayor's permission
In Kharkiv, on June 26, municipal security guards prevented reporters from Channel 5 and Channel 24 from filming in the Shevchenko Garden without a permission from the mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
Channel 5 journalist Ksenia Necheporenko told IMI about this.
According to her, they were in the Garden filming a story about the girl who had recently protested a performance by the singer Svitlana Loboda.
The reporter says that a security guards approached them as they were interviewing the report's hero and started asking them what they were doing, to which the journalists replied that they were filming an interview with activists. The security guard left, but later another man walked up to the reporters, introduce himself as the Shevchenko Garden's head of security. The journalist notes that the man did not show them any documents.
"He started asking what we were filming there, whether we had a permission. When we replied that we did, he started sking what kind of permission we had. We answered that journalists have permission to film in public places according to the law of Ukraine. To this, he said that in order to film in the Garden, we must obtain a permission from Mr. Terekhov. He told us so just like that. The security guard said that without Terekhov's permission we could not film anything," Ksenia said.
She added that they refused to stop filming and advised him to contact the police if he believed they were breaking the law.
The incident ended with the journalists insisting that they were working in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine and the media law, after which the security guard turned around and left.
"We once again told him that if we were breaking the law, he could call the police. And he asked on what grounds he should call the police. I repeated that we were working in accordance with the Constitution and the laws, he realized that we would not leave and would continue with our work, so he turned around and left," the journalist said.
The journalists of both channels do not plan to contact the police regarding this situation. According to Ksenia, the security guards did not use physical violence, did not touch their cameras, only "attempted verbal pressure."
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