The Commission of Journalist Ethics deems the actions of the Kharkiv City Council press service in revoking a journalist’s accreditation to be an act of persecution for criticism and obstruction of journalists’ professional activities, and believes that the officials involved have exceeded the powers vested in them

At a City Council meeting today, 21 February, Kharkiv’s Mayor Mykailo Dobkin expressed his views about the work of journalists and those publications in the media which, in his opinion, are not objective in the way they cover his activities

This unequivocal step by the city authorities has received considerable attention from journalists. It creates a dangerous precedent in restricting the rights of journalists, their freedom to carry out their professional activities and their freedom of speech.

Kharkiv journalists express their indignation over the recent withdrawal of accreditation of one of their colleagues for what the Kharkiv City Council has decided was “unverified information and a slanted approach”

The Kharkiv City Council has revoked the accreditation for journalist from “Komersant – Ukraina” Maria Spalek. The reason given is that the journalist “has been persistently misinforming people in Ukraine about the reform of housing and communal services in Kharkiv”.

Director for the Media Law Institute Taras Shevchenko believes that many of the points in the draft law are at variance with norms of European practice

IMI Director says that the requirement contained in the draft law voted for on Wednesday to publish founders still fails to ensure that the public know which politicians or oligarchs are behind any given television channel or publication

The draft law proposes that when submitting documents to receive or extend broadcasting licenses to the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, information will have to be provided about the founders, co-founders, owners and joint owners of the media outlet.

On 6 February a press conference was held in Donetsk to present the results of a six-month project monitoring interaction of the authorities and the public. Specialists consider that the local authority elections on proportional, party lines have exacerbated the problem of mutual understanding between the authorities and the public.

During a recent training course journalists gained practice in overcoming the bureaucratic barrier; seeking alternative sources of information; using official documents and creating their own networks of information sources.

The “Article 19” project sets out to discover from local journalists how easy it is for them to work with environmental topics and information in Lviv and what problems they encounter when gathering environmental information

According to the Minister, changes incorporate recommendations made by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 5 October 2005

Over two months the civic organization sent formal requests for information regarding the observance of human rights to subdivisions of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chernihiv region. They lodged administrative suits against the “most persistent non-respondents

The National Commission for the Affirmation of Freedom of Speech and Development of the Information Realm under the President of Ukraine has appealed to local authorities to ensure that their rules of journalist accreditation are in compliance both with Ukrainian legislation and with international standards.

"The task of journalists and human rights defenders is to force officials to take decisions openly, providing the public with full and open information about the activities of the authorities and bodies of local self-government.”

The Crimean Prosecutor’s Office has recognized as unlawful the limitations on the number of accredited journalists, the demands not set down in legislation for documents in order to receive accreditation, as well as the ban on approaching other sources for information besides the press centre of the Crimean Parliament.

It has agreed to allow journalists to receive information from different departments, not only from the press centre Other issues allegedly violating legislation in the new rules for media accreditation will be considered by the prosecutor’s office

Around 50 members of the mass media walked out of Parliament in protest at new rules on media accreditation which introduce a permission system for some forms of media coverage and which they believe to be in contravention of Ukrainian legislation

Lawyer from the Media Law Institute Tetyana Rodionova has lodged an administrative appeal against the Constitutional Court over the latter’s refusal to provide a response to a formal request for information.

The Prosecutor General’s office continues refusing to provide information