Poltava journalists say City Council has unauthorized communications manager; government denies

Screenshot from the IPT's video

Poltava journalists continue to report unsatisfactory communication by the City Council and claim that there is an unnamed and unauthorized person in the Council who instructs the staff on how to communicate with media professionals and what to discuss.

Mykola Lysohor, a journalist for the website Poltavshchyna, and several other local media workers who spoke anonymously reported this to Nadia Kucher, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Poltava oblast.

Lysohor says that communication with the City Council happens via a group chat. He believes that the level of communication leaves much to be desired.

“Their input in the chat are official messages proof-read by several communications officers. Moreover, it is not the head of the City Council press service managing the communications, but some other person who has an informal status. This person tells the department heads and administration chairs what to write and what not to write. The City Council leadership has also forbidden department heads from replying to journalists directly; all information goes through the 'gray communications cardinal'. Even social media posts are approved by this person,” complains Mykola Lysohor.

He added that the City Council leadership has closed itself off from journalists.

“The leadership believes that if journalists criticize them they are either chasing clout or were bought by someone. They cannot believe that they themselves make mistakes. So Kateryna Yamshchykova's team (acting mayor of the Poltava community, City Council secretary. – Ed.) decided: 'If we get criticized either way, we will not tell journalists more than official messages in the chat,'” the journalist summarizes.

Anastasia Nedohorska, an investigative journalist at Poltavashchyna, shares a similar view.

“The City Council's communication with the media is minimal, I would say: formal replies to queries, without answers or explanations. Communicating through Maryna Serova (head of the Poltava City Council press service – Ed.), is also ineffective. No complaints against Maryna, but there have been many against those who are supposed to provide her with information. Often you need information urgently but have to wait for several days, the provided information is incomplete, and follow-up questions are answered vaguely or not at all. There are some municipal structures where managers are generally barred from talking to journalists directly," the journalist says.

She notes that she would like comments and explanations to be provided promptly, meaningfully, and truthfully.

“Because calling uncleaned rainwater drains 'special sewerage features' is distorting reality. I would like the City Council to not only initiate inspections, but also report on the findings, because no one has heard anything about the felled linden trees or the electric car charging (by the first deputy mayor Valeriy Parkhomenko, who charged his car in the City Council. – Author),” says Anastasia Nedohorska.

In a comment to the IMI representative, the acting mayor of Poltava and City Council Secretary Kateryna Yamshchykova said that she was open to constructive dialogue with the media.

“We have created several mechanisms for this. We have a chat for operational communication. At media workers' request, we had the ban on livestreaming executive committee meetings and sessions during air raid alerts lifted. We are currently working to update the City Council website to make it more convenient, to make it easier to search for information and documents, because I see regular complaints from the community about the work of the resource. Our press service is in contact with everyone 24/7,” Yamshchykova commented.

The official assured that the City Council processes all queries, oral and written, as well as those that arrive to personal phone numbers at any time.

“We receive hundreds of official queries: they are registered in the office and then passed along to infromation managers. I respect the work of media professionals. In return, I ask you to understand that Kateryna Yamshchykova, and indeed any other person, cannot physically control how complete is the reply to a query that was prepared by the specialists involved,” says the acting mayor of Poltava.

When asked about complaints about secrecy and reluctance to discussing scandalous topics or non-replies to queries by journalists, Yamshchykova says that her dream is getting rid of this concept altogether and for people to stop thinking in terms of “media versus the government.”

“We are ready to explain any topic, constructively, with facts and figures. But it is worth remembering: many problems are the result of decades of chaos, which we are now systematically raking through. So there is a lot of work to be done,” says Yamshchykova.

The IMI representative received no answers regarding the unnamed “gray cardinal” with an unofficial position who manages the City Council’s communications staff. The head of the Poltava City Council press service, Maryna Serova, said in a comment that “only those who are in the structure are authorized to manage this.”

“I and my [subordinates] report to the City Council secretary, as per the department regulations,” said Maryna Serova.