Court finds Kyiv Council broke the law in not admitting journalist

  The District Administrative Court in Kyiv has allowed the suit brought by journalist Yehor Sobolyev, Director of the Svidomo Journalist Investigation Bureau against the Kyiv City Council.  The latter had come up with new demands not required in the Law on Information for Sobolyev’s accreditation. They demanded a original of a certificate from his place of work (with the original stamp, not copied) and in the absence of this instructed that he not be admitted to the Council Session.  They claimed that the well-known journalist who has 15 years journalist experience had not provided sufficient proof of his profession.

In August Sobolyev and Roman Holovenko, a lawyer from the Institute for Mass Information who was representing Sobolyev in this civil claim prepared a draft list of simplified rules of accreditation and passed it to the Secretary of the Kyiv Council, Halyna Hereza.  Having waited three months, they approached the District Administrative Court in order to get the practice stopped whereby the Kyiv Council demands too many papers to be admitted to the meetings, this being in breach of the new version of the Law on Information.

Their application to have the excessive demands revoked has been made into a separate claim and is presently being examined by another judge.