Parliament wants to restrict Ukrainska Pravda journalists

The Internet publication Ukrainska Pravda reports that the Verkhovna Rada Office has asked the Committee on Freedom of Speech to consider whether two journalists from Ukrainska Pravda – Serhiy Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayem – should be admitted to parliamentary sessions after the elections.  The letter is addressed to the head of the Committee, Yury Stets.

This is prompted by a letter from M. Ilyin, Commandant of Security regarding what he calss “the incident on 2 October”  - during the session Leshchenko and Nayem unfurled a banner from the press area onto the parliamentary balcony.

The Verkhovna Rada Office also reports what it describes as “systematic infringement (by the journalists) of the conditions and general regime for parliament’s work and ignoring legitimate demands from the security people to stop these infringements”

On 2 October the two journalists’ banner read: “Stop the libel law”.  This is not the first time journalists have resorted to such measures. On 12 April three journalists unfurled a large banner urging MPs to not vote for other MPs (which is prohibited by the Constitution but widely practised.