The parliamentary Freedom of Speech Committee has tried the complaint by Danylo Mokryk, an investigative journalist with The Kyiv Independent, and ruled to hand the case files over to the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Parliamentary Ethics. The complaint regarded the actions by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, who the journalist claimed, posted screenshots from a private group chat that allowed to identify where Mokryk lives on social media.
The Committee’s decision was passed on 15 May, ZMINA reports.
Danylo Mokryk said that Honcharenko started repeatedly mentioning him on social media after the journalist took his interview in January 2026. Mokryk ignored this for some time, but on 31 March, the MP posted screenshots from a private group chat for residents of the building where the journalist lives on Telegram and Facebook.
According to Mokryk, the MP posted a set of data that makes it quite easy to identify where he lives: “You don’t even need artificial intelligence to do this: you need half a day at most.”
The journalist stressed that this put him at risk, since he was involved in investigating Russian war crimes as part of The Kyiv Independent team and as such came in concact with suspects in such crimes.
He added that his team adhered to strict safety rules: journalists do not share photos that could point to the location of the office or their homes.
Mokryk said that he had contacted the police, who opened proceedings under Article 182 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Violation of privacy”). He is legally recognised as the victim in the case and has already been questioned.
The journalist’s lawyer, Oksana Maksymeniuk, said that information about a person’s place of residence is confidential data.
“The right to free speech is the right to free speech, and Oleksiy Honcharenko is entitled to expressing himself. But in any case, there must be limits to exercising such a right,” she said.
Oleksiy Honcharenko objected to the journalist’s claims and said that Mokryk had made his home address public himself by writing texts in the house chat under his own name and photo. The MP added that he posted the screenshots without mentioning the exact address: “I published these screenshots without listing the address of the house.”
At the same time, Honcharenko accused the journalist of double standards, recalling earlier journalistic investigations which listed the home addresses of officials, their wives, and even children.
The MP added that public figures should be prepared for more attention: “If a person is so worried about their private life, then they probably choose some other profession.”
Regarding the police proceedings, Honcharenko said that this is the first time he has heard about it.
Yevhen Brahar, deputy chair of the Freedom of Speech Committee, said that the 608-person group chat is somewhat of a public space, even though he agreed that the information in the screenshots allows one to locate the building. In his opinion, the line between private and public “was not crossed” in this case.
After the discussion, the Freedom of Speech Committee voted to hand the case material over to the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Deputy Ethics to evaluate the MP’s actions.
The Committee’s chairman Yaroslav Yurchyshyn reported that the Committee may contact the police to request information about the progress of the pre-trial investigation without disclosing the secrets of the investigation.