On 26 July 2024, police in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv opened a criminal investigation following the decision by the local city council to significantly restrict journalists’ access to the city council building, Ukrainian press freedom group Institute of Mass Information (IMI) reported. Police announced that they would investigate the decision under article 171.1 of Ukraine’s criminal code, which penalises the “obstruction of the legal activities of a journalist”. The restrictions on journalists’ access foresee that media workers can only enter the Mykolaiv city council building after receiving an invitation from the council’s administration. In addition to this, the new rules foresee that journalists planning to conduct interviews at the council building must be accompanied by a member of the council’s press service.
According to local outlet NikVesti, new rules for journalists’ entry to the council building were adopted in July 2022, however these rules were only became known in 2024, after an incident in which NikVesti journalists were unable to enter the Mykolaiv city council building. Speaking to IMI, NikVesti editor-in-chief Kateryna Sereda said that journalists’ contact with local elected officials has been seriously restricted since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, creating difficulties for media outlets wishing to conduct interviews or seeking to obtain information from authorities on the state of local affairs.