Mykolaiv Oblast Council bars "NikVesti" from attending a session

The Mykolaiv Oblast Council barred "NikVesti" from the room where the chairman of the Oblast Council session scheduled for December 14 will be present.

Such is the reply the media outlet's editors received after asking to take part in the Oblast Council meeting, reports the IMI representative in Mykolaiv oblast.

The current regulations of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council, namely Article 74, stipulate that during remote plenary meetings, only the Oblast Council chairman, their deputy, the OMA chairman, employees of the Council's apparatus, and mass media representatives are present in the room. Other deputies take part in the meeting via video call.

However, the Oblast Council, which is currently headed by Anton Tabunshchyk, believes that participation is only possible remotely, as they have no means to "guarantee safe presence of media representatives."

"Considering that Ukraine is still at war and Mykolaiv city is in the zone of possible hostilities, and given the lack of a safe session hall for plenary meetings equipped with a proper bomb shelter, etc., the Mykolaiv Oblast Council has not means to guarantee safe presence of deputies, speakers, media representatives, invitees and other persons even during remote meetings. In this regard, the participation of deputies and other persons in the plenary session will be ensured exclusively via a video call," wrote the Mykolaiv Oblast Council.

At the same time, the Oblast Council promised to send journalists a link to join the video call and told them that the plenary session will be livestreamed on the official website of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council.

Roman Holovenko, a lawyer at the Institute of Mass Information, noted that the Oblast Council regulations do guarantee journalists the right to be present in the hall during a remote meeting.

"The work of journalists sometimes involves risks, some journalists even work on the front line. Therefore, the Council leadership's task in this situation was not to limit the physical presence of journalists, but only to warn them about the risks in advance. This could be done by making them sign a waiver. Also, the rule in the regulations about the right to be present in the hall during a meeting even though it is remote may be changed in the future. It can simply refer to the premises where the chairman and the Council staff are located, then it can be about any room in question," the lawyer noted.

Earlier, on December 11, the official website of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council posted the draft decisions of the next Oblast Council session and also reported that the Oblast Council chairman had convened it. But the order itself was not released. Kateryna Sereda, the IMI representative in Mykolaiv oblast, pointed this out on Facebook.

The next day, after the journalist's remark, the Oblast Council website posted the order and announced the date and format of the session, which was supposed to discuss personnel issues remotely.