Suspilne Poltava journalist says Oblast Council did not send them a link to a session livestream due to his Telegram post

"Suspilne Poltava" journalist Ihor Izotov believes that the Poltava Oblast Council press office did not provide the TV channel with a link to the August 30 session livestream because of his post in his own Telegram channel.

The post mentioned the Poltava Oblast Council chair, Oleksandr Bilenko, the journalist tells the regional Institute of Mass Information representative.

Poltava journalists usually receive livestream links from the Oblast Council's press office upon request on the day of the meeting. However, this time the "Suspilne Poltava" team did not receive the link.

Ihor Izotov considers the situation to be a common misunderstanding and says that the Council's failure to send the link "is in no way related to the channel's activities."

"The Oblast Council press office representative had complaints about my own Telegram channel, which is unrelated to Suspilne. There was a post mentioning Oleksandr Bilenkyi, the chair of the Poltava Oblast Council, but the mention was somewhat incorrect. The head of the Oblast Council press office texted me in private messages, but it took me some time to see the text. Later, the Poltava OMA press office contacted me and I corrected the post. I saw the message from the Oblast Council press office after that. But there was no point in replying, because I had already edited the post. I think that this is just the press office holding a grudge. After all, I do not see how the situation concerns Suspilne's work. I think there was a misunderstanding," Ihor Izotov said.

When asked for a comment by the IMI representative, the head of the Poltava Oblast Council press office, Serhiy Nahornyi, advised to submit an official query.

The response to the query, signed by Oleksandr Bilenkyi, says that "the Poltava Oblast Council holds plenary meetings of the Oblast Council session in video conference mode, as per the Law of Ukraine 'On Local Self-Government in Ukraine', the Regulations of the Poltava Oblast Council of the 8th Convocation, approved by the second session of the Poltava Oblast Council of the 8th Convocation on 29.12.2020, decision No. 84 (with amendments)".

"The current law and the Regulations of the Poltava Oblast Council of the 8th Convocation do not stipulate that links to livestreams of the Poltava Oblast Council plenary sessions must be sent out," notes the reply to the query.

However, the IMI representative notes, the Oblast Council did not give a specific answer regarding the livestream links being sent out to Poltava journalists selectively, as other media professionals did receive the link to the session at their request.