Police closes two obstruction cases concerning Chetverta Vlada

The police have closed two proceedings related to obstruction of reporting by Chetverta Vlada journalists, as per the response by the Rivne District Prosecutor’s Office to a query by the regional Institute of Mass Information representative Hanna Kalaur.

One of the cases is about the negative PR campaign targeting the agency, and the other one concerns the non-admission of the media outlet’s journalist Dmytro Domashchuk to a public event.

The response states that the decision to close the proceedings was made by the investigation sector of the Rivne District Police Department based on the findings of the pre-trial investigation. The law enforcers say the cases were closed due to the lack of a corpus delicti (clause 2, part 1, article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine).

As previously reported, Chetverta Vlada faced a wave of mudslinging in late 2024, consisting of defamatory articles and a likely paid-for campaign against the media outlet's chief editors. IMI discovered the latest instance of smearing the media outlet in May 2025.

It began with a commissioned article titled “The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad or the Job of Pochayiv Parish – a Little Secret of the Torbichs, the Likely Separatists,” which was published on October 31 and November 1 on the webistes CRiME, News24, and Press Center.

Screenshot of the News 24 article smearing Chetverta Vlada

The articles are written as exposés, feature numerous insults, and allege that Chetverta Vlada has ties to Russian special services through the Russian Orthodox Church. In particular, that the deputy editor Antonina Torbich shares a registration address with a Moscow Patriarchate congregation. In fact, Antonina's address and that of the UOC MP congregation in question are completely different, which can be verified through official registers.

The Chetverta Vlada team believes the campaign has to do with their news story criticizing obstruction of reporting by the head of the Rivne City Council communications department, Yana Yevtushok.

In late 2024, the police discovered this article online and opened a case under Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (obstruction of reporting).

“The actions of the anonymous author of the article are seen as an attempt to influence a journalist with the aim of preventing them from performing their professional duties,” the Rivne District Prosecutor’s Office reported in response to an IMI query in February 2025. However, the police closed the case on June 4, 2025.

Chetverta Vlada chief editor Volodymyr Torbich said in a comment to the IMI representative that the police had not notified him of the closure of the proceedings.

“So I do not know the reasons for closing it. But this confirms once again that the police are unfit to do their job of bringing people to justice under Article 171 of the Criminal Code. As the police have repeatedly demonstrated. Whether this is inaptitude or some sort of unwillingness on the part of the police, or if there are some flaws in this Criminal Code article that do not allow the case to be brought to court, I am not sure. Someone should ask expert lawyers who have studied this. I heard the opinion of one lawyer that the article is written in such a way that prosecution under it was impossible unless some kind of beating or physical assault was involved,” Torbich said.

The second closed case concerns obstruction of reporting faced by Chetverta Vlada journalist Dmytro Domashchuk. In November 2024, he was barred from attending a meeting on funding the local territorial community volunteer unit (TCVU). The journalist wanted to attend the event on the advice of a volunteer formation member who complained about the lack of funding for the volunteers and the city authorities’ obstruction of the work of the TCVU.

In a comment to IMI, Dmytro Domashchuk said that the meeting was to be held at a school in Rivne. The journalist warned the commander of his intention to come, provided a journalist’s ID card, and gave his Ministry of Defense accreditation number. Despite this, he was not let into the venue. Later, the advisor to the oblast military administration chair, Oleksandr Shemeiko, who was present at the meeting, stated that the event would have to be canceled due to the journalist’s presence.

“Those present voted, under pressure, for me to leave. When I left, I immediately called the police and reported the obstruction of my reporting,” Dmytro Domashchuk told IMI.

Based on the journalist’s statement, the police opened a case on obstruction of reporting (Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) on November 21, 2024.

According to a query response received by IMI from the prosecutor’s office, the police closed this case on April 9, 2024.

Dmytro Domashchuk said that he learned about the case being closed from IMI and not from the authorities.

“Back on March 21, 2025, I called the investigator in the case, Pavlo Smolinskyi, to inquire about the progress of the case. He assured me that the case was under investigation and not closed and that I would be immediately notified of any results. Even despite keeping in touch with the investigator via email, and me providing my current mail address and phone number, I have not received any notifications regarding this case. I wonder what they discovered that made them so ashamed to report the closure,” Dmytro Domashchuk said in a comment to IMI.