Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych amended the procedure for granting reporters access to the City Council hall, outlining the process for issuing digital passes, after several addresses by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI).

The decree on amendments to the Instructions for ensuring security and access to the Mykolaiv City Council administrative building was issued on 17 December 2025, reports Kateryna Sereda, the IMI representative in Mykolaiv oblast.

Mykolaiv journalists had had no free access to the City Council hall for at least a year and a half. According to the rules that were de-facto introduced in May 2024, journalists can only attend City Council events if they are on the list of approved reporters, and only escorted by press office representatives. Journalists have repeatedly stressed that these regulations violate the law “On Information”, namely Article 25, which stipulates that a journalist has the right to freely visit the headquarters of state bodies and public events hosted by them. On 26 July 2024, the Mykolaiv police opened a case on obstruction of reporting following a news story by IMI. However, the police closed the case a few months later, having found no corpus delicti.

In late October 2025, IMI representative Kateryna Sereda addressed Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych, suggesting he issue pass cards for accessing the City Council hall to journalists with officially registered media outlets, but Senkevych gave no definitive answer, promising to consider this option. In early December, the Mykolaiv Mayor announced that journalists would be given access to the City Council.

On 17 December 2025, the decree to that effect was posted on the City Council’s website. It says that reporters with media outlets registered at the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting can be admitted into the building upon showing a temporary digital pass. To get such a pass, a journalist must send an application by emailing the Mykolaiv City Council chair’s department ([email protected]). The application must include the following data:

  • the media outlet’s full name; 
  • its ID in the Register of Media Entities; 
  • address and email address (if available); 
  • contact phone number;
  • full names of the media outlet’s representatives to visit the City Council hall, their contact numbers and email addresses (if available).

The application must also include photos of the news outlet’s representatives who will be visiting the building and who are listed in the application, as well as copies of documents proving that the listed persons are in labor or civil-law relations with the media entity. The pass must be renewed yearly.

Earlier this year, Oleh Derenyuha, who runs the online news outlet MykVisti, was invited to a meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council commission on legality and transparency that was supposed to discuss the City Council’s integrity, but the City Council security refused to let him into the building.