Kyiv administration bans placement of posters by NGO Kyiv Residents Above All! on billboards

Kyiv, June 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – NGO Kyiv Residents Above All! is planning to lodge an appeal in court over a ban imposed by Kyiv City Administration on the placement on billboards of any information posters featuring the city development program drafted by this organization.

"We won't stop, we'll hold press conferences, and we'll appeal to the law enforcement agencies," the leader of this organization, Head of Shevchenkivsky District in Kyiv Viktor Pylypyshyn said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Thursday.

He said that NGO Kyiv Residents Above All! had signed contracts with commercial companies regarding the placement on billboards of information posters about the program entitled "The Economic Plan of Viktor Pylypyshyn." However, representatives of Kyiv City Administration phoned these companies and asked them to remove the posters, threatening to dismantle their outdoor advertising objects if they failed to do so, he added.

Pylypyshyn described this as an "attack" by Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky and his team on the freedom of speech.

He also said that he had raised this problem at a meeting with Chernovetsky on June 2.

"[Chernovetsky] answered that my billboards had prevented Kyiv from developing and that they were shattering the situation in the capital. He did not give this order himself, but he thinks that my billboards shouldn't be in Kyiv," Pylypyshyn said.

Lawyer Oleksandr Danyliuk said that actions by Kyiv City Administration officials who banned the placement of the posters could fall under a number of Criminal Code articles, which foresee punishment for hindering the activity of a non-governmental organization, the economic activities of commercial institutions, and the abuse of office.