Ternopil oblast police opened one case on obstruction of reporting in 2024

As of December 13, the Ternopil Oblast National Police has registered one case related to obstruction of journalists’ work, as reported by Oksana Tsvihun, deputy chief of investigations at the Ternopil Oblast Police HQ, to Iryna Nebesna, regional representative of the Institute of Mass Information.

The case in question is based on the statement filed by 20 Khvylyn chief editor Natalia Burlak in response to a fake post on the anonymous Facebook page "Bigus Ternopilskyi" which cited her as the primary source to report on the "death" of Ternopil journalist Vitaliy Antonyuk. A pre-trial investigation into this case is underway, says Oksana Tsvihun.

“No data on other violations of the rights and freedoms of journalists was entered into the ERDR by the investigation and inquiry units of the Ternopil Oblast Police HQ during the period from January 1 to December 13, 2024,” the deputy chief of investigations reported.

As for the Politerno chief editor Andriy Shchesniak, filed a statement about covert investigation and surveillance who in January 2024, the case is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation, since the media professional said the surveillance was due to his reporting about the oblast's National Police chief Serhiy Zyubanenko.

The Ternopil oblast prosecutor's office told the IMI representative that the case was closed back in the summer on the basis of Clause 2, Part 1, Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (lack of a corpus delicti).