Mykolaiv to give journalists access to some administrative meetings following IMI's letter

Illustration by Chesno

Mykolaiv journalists will be given access to attend the mayor's administrative meetings once a month. This decision was announced by the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, in response to a question from Kateryna Sereda, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Mykolaiv oblast, during a press conference on July 30.

In June, IMI sent an official letter to the Mykolaiv City Council, asking to resume the practice of inviting reporters to administrative meetings. The letter stated that giving the media access to such events, which feature not only officials but representatives of the public as well, would contribute to the transparency of the local government bodies and increase community trust. Such meetings were open to journalists in Mykolaiv once a month prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but access for the media was suspended after that.

In response to the letter, the executive committee’s affairs manager, Andriy Volkov, effectively refused to open access to the meetings, saying that the city authorities have no legal obligation to make them public. The reply added that staff meetings were an “internal form of communication” between officials and municipal services and the issues discussed were often classified under martial law.

After the IMI representative publicly summarized the address and the City Council's reply during a press conference, Oleksandr Senkevych acknowledged that the issue was important for the government transparency.

“I will promise you in front of everyone and on the livestream that as soon as martial law ends, we will involve journalists in all administrative meetings. And secondly, I will look for a way to give you an opportunity to meet all these people present at administrative meetings and to talk to them in a work setting during martial law. Perhaps we will hold some kind of open administrative meeting once a month where we simply will not include any issues that have room for interpretation,” the mayor said.

Oleksandr Senkevych stressed that he has the goal of making Mykolaiv the most open city in Ukraine, and that if this requires administrative meetings to be open, then he is ready to do it.

“I want Mykolaiv city to be number one in Ukraine in terms of openness. For us to get there, for me to receive that statuette and write down 'transparency number one' in my karma. I want us to do it. And if that means I need to do this step as well, then I will try to implement it too,” said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

He also explained that staff meetings often discuss issues related to security, infrastructure, and emergency response, which cannot be disclosed under martial law. At the same time, he agreed that some of the meetings could be adapted to an open format.

Earlier, Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych suggested that journalists, like civil servants and officials, should be subject to declaration and report their income and property to the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP).

Oleksandr Senkevych instructed his subordinates to go live on Instagram and respond to citizens on social media.

The Mykolaiv police closed the previously initiated proceedings on denial of access to the Mykolaiv City Council building to journalists.