Ukrinform's Chernihiv correspondent confirms the existence of "topic guidelines" listing preferred and unwanted guests

An Ukrinform correspondent in Chernihiv and Cherkasy oblasts Yuriy Stryhun says that he did receive "topic guidelines" with a list of preferred and unwanted guests for Chernihiv oblast from the editor in December 2023.

He confirmed this to Suspilne.

In the previous three years of his working at the news agency, the journalist had never been sent such "documents", he said.

"I have been working at Ukrinform for three years. Under the previous boss, Oleksandr Kharchenko, we did not have any 'topic guidelines', any prohibitions or recommendations regarding guests. Each correspondent would approve a topic with their regional editor, do their job, and there weren't any bans," Yuriy Stryhun noted.

He says that everything changed when Oleksiy Matsuka was appointed Ukrinform CEO in November 2023.

"Some time passed, until mid-December, I think, and he sent us a message (well, not he, but our oblast editors, who received these documents with lists of preferred / unwanted guests from him). It was a two-page file. One column listed the preferred speakers, the other the unwanted ones. The preferred ones included representatives of the Chernihiv Oblast Administration, some deputies (with brief characteristics), and the unwanted ones were mainly representatives of the former Chernihiv Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko, and the acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako", Yuriy Stryhun said.

However, the journalist added, he mostly ignored the "topic guidelines" while working.

"Can't say that I relied on this document, no. If I had to report on restoration, I called both the City Council and the Oblast Administration, trying to contact them and write my article. I usually had no problem calling Oleksandr Anatoliyovych (Lomakо. – Ed.) or his subordinates," said the journalist.

As for the oblast administration, he says that he had one conversation with the Chaus's chief of press (Vyacheslav Chaus is the chair of the Chernihiv OA. – Ed.) on WhatsApp.

"We talked, I tried to arrange an interview, he promised, and then it didn't go anywhere – he stopped replying, and that was it. I disregarded these 'topic guidelines' in my future work, too. I would choose the topics myself, whichever I thought important, whichever I thought interesting," the correspondent said.

Yuriy Stryhun added: there were no sanctions for non-compliance with the instructions provided for in the lists.

"No one told us: 'We gave you a list, but you're not using it.' There was a list. I cannot speak for all colleagues from Ukrinform: maybe they also had these 'topic guidelines', or maybe they didn't. I had one, but I didn't work by it," he notes.

Suspilne notes that after Yury Stryhun's comment was published, he called them back and said that his colleagues from Ukrinform had called him and said that they too had been offered to work by 'topic guidelines', but refused.

On May 29, the UP released the article "No outisders around. How the President's Office is taking control over Ukrinform", reporting that during his time as the director of the news agency Ukrinform, journalist Oleksiy Matsuka, who is considered a protege of the President's Office, introduced censorship, "topic guidelines", and planned to overhaul the agency so as to appoint the "right" people to certain positions.

The metadata of most documents mentioned Andriy Podorvan, adviser to the chair of the Chernihiv Oblast Administration who ran for the oblast council with the party "Servant of the People" in 2020, but was not elected. In a conversation with the UP, he denied creating such files, said he did not know Matsuka and did not understand how his name and surname got into the metadata.

Previously

On May 24, 2024, Oleksiy Matsuka announced that he had resigned as the Ukrinform director general.

It was reported on May 23 that the spokesman of the UAF Eastern Group, Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, has been appointed director general of the national news agency Ukrinform.

As IMI reported, on May 23, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree ordering that the director general of the Ukrainian National News Agency Ukrinform be an army serviceperson.

Institute of Mass Information director Oksana Romaniuk has said that an army officer running the news agency Ukrinform may face a direct conflict of interest.

At his first meeting with the Ukrinform team, Serhiy Cherevaty said that no major staff changes were planned and that he would take healthy ideas from the team into account while organizing Ukrinform's work.

The director of the Institute of Mass Information, Oksana Romaniuk, believes that in order to solve the censorship crisis at Ukrinform, the President's Office should ensure a transparent competition for the post of the media outlet's director.