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.
Oleg Derenyuga spoke about this in a commentary to the Institute of Mass Information.
The City Council was scheduled to hold a commission meeting on 19 November, with the agenda including the draft Mykolaiv City Council Integrity Plan: a strategic document aimed to identify and minimise corruption risks in the work of local self-government bodies. The City Council commission declared in July of this year that a public discussion of the document was needed and announced they were accepting comments and proposals for it.
MykVisti prepared and submitted proposals for the draft integrity plan, which concerned, in particular, the need to verify City Council deputies at online Council meetings, unhindered access to the building for journalists, and the openness of the Mykolaiv City Council.
Oleh Derenyuha said that a City Council staff member had contacted him the day before and invited him to the meeting to speak on this issue. However, at the entrance to the building, the security refused to let him in.
“If you invite someone to a commission meeting, especially if it’s not as a journalist but as a co-speaker, since they wrote you a letter with proposals for the integrity plan, you need to at least grant them access. Now the authorities essentially claim that the city is open, the City Council is open to journalists, but in reality it is like this: you come, say that you were invited to an event, but they don’t let you in. The city is closed, you cannot get in here,” said Oleh Derenyuha.
Oleh Derenyuha was allowed into the building in the end.
Article 25 of the Law of Ukraine “On Information” defines guarantees for the work of media outlets and journalists; in particular, Clause 2 says that a journalist has the right to freely visit the premises of government entities and public events hosted by them.
This is not the first time that Mykolaiv journalists have reported access issues in the City Council. In May 2024, MykVisti journalists tried to enter the Mykolaiv City Council building to get comments from officials after a staff meeting. They were not allowed in, allegedly due to the new access regulations that say media representatives can only enter the building with a one-time digital pass issued by the City Council’s organisation department on a list basis, and only escorted by employees of the media support department.
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.