08 Feb 11 | Index Index, minipost
Kyiv’s city general architect has been officially reprimanded for locking a journalist in a room during a council meeting. The incident took place at a meeting of Kyiv’s planning council on the 2 February. Serhiy Tselovalnyk walked past a group of journalists, ignoring their requests for comment. Olha Koshelenko, a journalist for the 1+1 television company, pursued him, and he forced her into a utility room and locked the door. Koshelenko was eventually released. City chairman Oleksandr Popov condemned Tselovalnyk’s actions.
09 Dec 10 | Index Index, minipost
The prosecutor general’s office has completed its investigation into the role that Oleksiy Pukach, a former intelligence office played in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and has announced is unable to lay any further charges despite evidence linking politicians to the murder. Pukach who at the time of the killing was the chief of the external surveillance department at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry will be put on trial in January. Gongadze was a Ukrainian journalist of Georgian descent killed in 2000. He was investigating high-level corruption allegedly involving senior officials, including president Leonid Kuchma. In March 2008, three former police officers were convicted for their role in Gongadze’s murder.
20 Sep 10 | News and features
The unsolved case of Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze highlights concerns for press freedom in post-Soviet states
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06 Sep 10 | Index Index, minipost
A witness in the case of missing journalist Vasyl Klymentyev has also gone missing. According to deputy editor Petro Matvienko, the key witness disappeared last week. He refused to reveal the person’s name for fear of jeopardising the investigation, but said he had verified the information with law enforcement agencies. The police department in Kharkiv claimed no knowledge of the witness’s disappearance. In a further development, Klymentyev’s lawyer was locked in his appartment by police. Officers forced their way into Vyacheslav Ismaylov’s home on 2 September, and barricaded him inside, saying they were investigating a case involving him. The newspaper lawyer fears that police could plant something in the appartment that would be compromising to him.
