Reuters, Associated Press, EPA, Ukrayinska Pravda, Ukrinform, Kyiv Post denied access to press box in Verkhovna Rada

Several journalists are denied access to attend a solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, as their names were not cited in the accreditation  list, as Ukrinform reported. Among them are the journalists for Reuters, Associated Press, EPA, Ukrayinska Pravda, Ukrinform, Kyiv Post and civil movement “Chesno”, as to “Ukrayinska Pravda”. In the lobby of the first entrance of the Parliament there are more than a dozen media representatives who are refused entry. Among them, the parliamentary correspondent for Ukrinform news agency Oleksander Trokhymchuk. The press service of the parliamentary apparatus explained those persons failed to pass an electronic accreditation, which was started in the morning of August 28, and today, there was no other possibility to give access to them. The journalists argued they have been accredited and even got confirmation of successful data transmission. As to Ukrinform, the incident remained unsolved for about half an hour. As to UP, the journalists were cited in the lists at the entrance to the parliament building, but not in the lists at the entrance to the press box. The deputy editor-in-chief of Kyiv Post Olga Rudenko also claimed that she was denied access despite her previous accreditation, as to Radio Liberty. “A crowd of people from quotable media are not in the lists (yesterday they assured by phone that everything was fine, accreditation would be OK), nobody wants to settle it, nobody is responsible for anything, the head of the parliament press service is on vacation (!). Photographers of the world agencies did not allowed on the balcony, they let them in after the scandal, ” she wrote. The journalists for “Novoe Vremya” Ivan Verstyuk also said he had applied for accreditation "almost three weeks ago". “Yesterday, once more, I resend documents for one-time accreditation for today's meeting. And I has not been accredited anyway. Many of my colleagues have the same story, ” he says. Investigative journalist for the Bihus.Info project, Lesya Ivanova, qualified the whole incident as  "loss of instinct for self-preservation" by the parliament. According to her, access to the sidelines was initially restricted, but later opened. She also reported that journalists had been denied access to a press box.