On 16 March 2023, the regional council of Mykolaiv, a major city in Southern Ukraine, barred journalists from its first in-person session since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The council’s press service claimed journalists were not allowed to join the meeting because their security could not be ensured in case an air raid alert was put out for Mykolaiv city. It was unclear, however, why an in-person meeting of regional councillors was organized despite these risks. Moreover, the regional council did not ensure a live broadcast of the meeting.
“The session was held in secret mode. Neither the public nor the media had the opportunity to attend the meeting: the location of the session was kept secret, and the meeting was not broadcast”, said Kateryna Sereda, a Mykolaiv-based representative of IMI, a Ukrainian press freedom group. Several hours after the end of the session, the regional council nevertheless published a recording of the meeting on Youtube, with a summary of the session also published on the council’s website. Up till November, when Russian forces retreated from nearby Kherson, Mykolaiv was the site of near-constant attacks by Russian forces. The security situation in the city has since partially improved.