Victoria Ushakova, Acting Head of the Department of Health Protection of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, refused to speak with a Region News journalist, referring to the city council’s ban, Region News reports .
As the publication writes, the mechanism of communication between a journalist and an official is as follows: a mass media employee must first contact the press secretary of the city mayor, Olga Mishok, and tell her what he wants to know from a specific official.
The press secretary, the publication writes, tries to answer the question herself, or promises to speak with the desired official for the journalist, to call back and inform that a comment can be obtained.
The publication notes that the city council thus violates several laws of Ukraine. In particular, “About civil service”, “About access to public information”, “About information”, which emphasizes the publicity and transparency of officials. Thus, in the law on the rain service in paragraph 9 of article 4, it is indicated that the public service is carried out in compliance with the following principles: “transparency – openness of information about the activities of a public servant, except for cases specified by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.”
Article 25 of the Law “On Information” states that “a journalist has the right to freely visit the premises of subjects of power, open events held by them, and be personally received within a reasonable time by their officials and officials, except for cases specified by law “.
In the comments of the representative of IMI in Zaporizhzhya region, the head of the press service of the city mayor, Olga Mishok, noted that the function of the press service is precisely to coordinate the interaction of journalists with representatives of the city council.
“Journalists contact us, we arrange a meeting with a certain person, saving the journalist’s efforts. Then he meets with the official, of course, alone, without us. No censorship is involved. We have been working this way for a year and have never had any problems,” she said.
At the same time, Mishok added that “if a journalist meets an official elsewhere and the meeting does not need to be planned, he (the official) has the right to make comments if he has time at that moment.”
Photo – Region News