On 19 July, in the morning, the Patriot Chernihova newspaper without an imprint was distributed, containing information aimed to discredit activities of MP candidate Serhii Berezenko, nominated in SMD #205, and his headquarters.
Newspaper articles warned the voters working as campaigners of Serhii Berezenko, who have provided personal data to candidate's representatives. It was claimed that representatives of Serhii Berezenko would take credits on their names and, as a result, the voters could lose their housing. It should be mentioned that according to the Article 74(10) of the Law of Ukraine on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine, „It shall be prohibited to spread deliberately false or libelous information about a party that is an electoral subject or about an MP candidate if its false or libelous nature has been established by a court“.
It should be mentioned that there were also lists of people who allegedly were buying votes and those, who "sell their votes", indicating full names, phones, living addresses and birth dates. Publication of such data violates the Law on the protection of personal data. Representatives of the OPORA have verified the contact data which tuned out authentic.
However, the newspaper didn't contain any information about a publishing firm, number of copies etc., what is against the effective legislation of Ukraine. It should be mentioned that the Patriot Chernihova newspaper was published without an imprint. However, according to the Article 69(7) of the Law of Ukraine on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine, „printed campaign materials shall contain information on the person requesting the publication of such materials, the establishment that published them, their circulation, and information on the individuals in charge of the issue“. We should also mention that this newspaper was disseminated after an incident with blocked Toyota Camry and after public receptions of the candidate Berezenko were searched to find evidence of voter bribery (18 July), and lists of campaigners and voters containing contact information were found in the car and in receptions.
Unfortunately, we didn't manage to find out who has published the Patriot Chernihova newspaper.
Civil Network OPORA continues watching the situation as a part of citizen monitoring of an MP of Ukraine in district #205, and informing the public about any changes.
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