Civil society organisations and media call on the Verkhovna Rada to resume broadcasting of its sessions

A session of the Verkhovna Rada. Photo: Facebook / Ruslan Stefanchuk

More than 50 civil society organisations and media outlets have appealed to the Verkhovna Rada to resume online broadcasts of plenary sessions on the TV channel «Rada», as well as to publish agendas in advance.

This was reported by the movement «Chesno».

The statement says that the openness of the parliament is a prerequisite for transparency, especially in the context of consideration of important bills. In particular, during the next meeting, MPs plan to consider an initiative to restore the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

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The authors of the appeal emphasise that decisions related to anti-corruption reform, European integration and international support for Ukraine should be made openly. In their opinion, the public should be able to watch MPs' votes in real time.

The signatories call on the parliament to resume broadcasting from the next plenary session.

As a reminder, on 22 February 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted amendments to the law on local self-government, obliging local councils to broadcast online all meetings of deputy commissions and sessions. On 27 February, the law was submitted to the President of Ukraine for signature.

What about access to Mykolaiv City Hall?

As you know, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, journalists have not had access to events or official meetings held in the city council building for security reasons. However, the practice of restricting journalists' access to the Mykolaiv City Council was introduced in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At that time, Andriy Volkov, the executive committee's chief of staff, said that such restrictions were being tested, in particular because of the SBU's requirement to control all visitors to Mykolaiv City Hall. That is, before entering the city hall, visitors, including journalists, have to say who they want to address and what issue they want to address. After that, the guards write down this information, call the representative of the city hall to whom the visitor came, who goes down to the checkpoint and picks up his guest.

However, the official also voiced another version of why access to the city council building was restricted for journalists. According to Andriy Volkov, officials feel uncomfortable with the fact that everything they say becomes news, which changes their behaviour at working meetings in the presence of the media.

At the time, Mykolaiv City Hall also said that access to the city council building was restricted in accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine №939 «For official use only».

It should be noted that all meetings of the sessions of the Mykolaiv City Council, as well as deputy commissions and meetings of the executive committee, have been held online for the third year since the beginning of the full-scale war. Mykolaiv city mayor's staff meetings with officials are also closed to the media. Unlike the Mykolaiv City Council, in May 2024, journalists were granted access to the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada to cover the work of the parliament during plenary sessions in the same way as during the covid pandemic.

As a reminder, in 2023, the Mykolaiv Regional Council, contrary to the regulations, refused to allow NikVesti to attend the session, which was scheduled to be held remotely.

Roman Holovenko, a lawyer at the Institute of Mass Information, said that the Mykolaiv Regional Council had no right to deny journalists access to the regional council meeting, but should only warn them of the security risks.