On 21 November 2024, regional military authorities in Dnipro reportedly banned a number of media outlets from filming the site of a recent Russian missile strike, in which Russia used a new medium-range ballistic missile bearing the name Oreshnik. According to journalists who spoke to representatives of the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), a Ukrainian press freedom group, military authorities allowed for media workers’ to film the area only five hours after the strike took place.
Journalists said that the ban was imposed despite the fact that anonymous Telegram channels had already published footage from the strike area, and that this ban was lifted only after the mayor of Dnipro, as well as the head of the local regional military administration, had made social media posts about the incident.
IMI recalled the existence of national regulations in Ukraine which were recently adopted as part of a compromise between media, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defense. According to these regulations, media workers should be allowed to access missile strike areas immediately after the strike itself, as well as take photos and film the area, under the condition that they publish this footage at least three hours after the strike, and at least 12 hours after in the case of military infrastructure.