Case on obstruction faced by Ternopil's 20 Khvylyn closed

Proceedings on obstruction of professional reporting faced by journalists with the Ternopil-based media outlet 20 Khvylyn have been closed due to the lack of corpus delicti, the investigation department of the Ternopil Oblast National Police HQ reports to Iryna Nebesna, the regional Institute of Mass Information representative.

According to the deputy chief of investigations, Iryna Shafranska, the proceedings were initiated on October 22, 2024 under Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code (“Any form of influencing a journalist with the aim of obstructing their reporting or persecuting a journalist in connection with their legal reporting”). However, the case was closed on April 28, 2025 in accordance with Part 2 of Article 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine: no corpus delicti being established.

On October 17, 2024, a post falsely claiming that Ternopil media worker Vitaliy Antoniuk had been killed in action and asking for donations surfaced on Facebook. The post cited 20 Khvylyn chief editor Natalia Burlaka as the primary source. In response, Burlaka filed an obstruction of reporting complaint with the police.

On the same day, the media outlet’s journalist Iryna Belyakova made a post discussing the fake news with her colleagues.  An unidentified user shared photos and videos of the journalist taken in the city streets in the comments to the post. The journalist contacted the police with a stalking complaint.

The oblast police explains that both cases were then combined into one and closed in late April this year.

The investigation department also reported that three proceedings for obstruction of reporting have been initiated in Ternopil oblast since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Besides the 20 Khvylyn case, one concerns the attack on Espreso journalist Maria Ivanovska on May 8, 2023. Then, the police opened two proceedings: under Part 1 of Article 171 and Part 4 of Article 186, since the suspect in the attack took the journalist's mobile phone. However, all three proceedings are now closed in accordance with Part 2 of Article 1 of Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code: no corpus delicti being found.