On 12 February 2024, Ukrainian press freedom group Institute of Mass Information (IMI) reported that the military command responsible for Sumy region had banned journalists from freely accessing a number of areas, in a move which seemed to exceed permitted restrictions on access as prescribed by a recent decision of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief. IMI recalled that according to the recent decision, journalists’ access to the zone of armed conflict in Ukraine had been significantly simplified.
In practice, Ukraine’s territory had been divided into “red”, “yellow” and “green” zones: journalists gained access to “red” zones only following authorisation from military commands and when accompanied by an army press officer, “yellow” zones became freely accessible to the same extent as civilians have access to them, while no access restrictions were put in place for “green” zones. However, even following these changes journalists in Sumy region journalists could reportedly still not access “yellow” zones unless accompanied by press officers, according to IMI.
In response to these allegations, representatives of the Sumy regional military command said that according to central regulations, journalists’ access to “yellow” zones could be restricted under specific circumstances, and that these reportedly applied to all “yellow” zones in Sumy region. Additionally, the Sumy military command claimed that “the entire [yellow] zone is under [Russian] fire”, and that for this reason media workers are not allowed to access the area freely.
However, a lawyer working with IMI said that according to the new central regulations, the responsibility for media workers’ safety in a zone of armed conflict no longer lied in the hands of the military, and that this responsibility had been transferred to journalists themselves as well as to their media outlets. For this reason, the military could not restrict access to media based on security concerns, the lawyer argued.
Additionally, Alona Yatsyna, the editor of Kordon Media, an outlet based in Sumy, alleged that the names of the outlet’s journalists, as well as the numbers on the license plates of their cars, had been communicated to local military commands with the instruction “not to let them enter anywhere”. Yatsyna did not specify who she believed had given these instructions.
Contacted by IMI, the press secretary of the Sumy regional military command said she was not authorised to comment on the case.