The application lodged by Kharkiv resident Svitlana Pomilyaiko with the European Court of Human Rights has been found admissible. Ms Pomilyaiko and her lawyers refer to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, this being the prohibition against torture and ill-treatment, as well as Article 13 given the lack of effective investigation into her complaint. .

Viktor Romanyuk, candidate for the United Opposition (the Batkivshchyna Party) has applied to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision of District Election Commission No. 94 which found the voting in 27 polling stations invalid.

The Head of the Central Election Commission Volodymyr Shapoval said at a meeting of the CEC on Sunday that he would be approaching the High Council of Justice regarding possible breach of oath by the judges who declared the voting at 27 polling stations in single-mandate electoral district No. 94 invalid.

The President of Freedom House, David Kramer has said that some public officials in Ukraine should be penalized by withholding visas.

The Central Election Commission has replaced 8 of the 18 members of the District Electoral Commission No. 197 where Bohdan Hubsky is competing against United Opposition candidate Leonid Datsenko.

Five editors of the UNIAN website have accused General Director Vadim Osadchy of censorship.

On Tuesday a member of the District Electoral Commission for No. 95 (which has its centre in Irpin, Kyiv oblast) informed that the application from the civic network OPORA for registration of an official observer for the electoral district had been turned down.

The Kharkiv District Administrative Court has allowed an application from the Kharkiv City Council and prohibited one of the leaders of the United Opposition from meeting with voters on Freedom Square on 15 October.

The Internet publication Ukrainska Pravda reports that the Verkhovna Rada Office has asked the Committee on Freedom of Speech to consider whether two journalists from Ukrainska Pravda – Serhiy Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayem – should be admitted to parliamentary sessions after the elections. The letter is addressed to the head of the Committee, Yury Stets.

Another case of fake leaflets has been reported, this time in the Kakhovska single-mandate electoral district No. 185 with the material purporting to be from the Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU].

The Lviv Regional Police have announced that a criminal investigation has been initiated into the violence against journalist and parliamentary candidate Tetyana Chornovil. The investigation is under Article 296 § 2 of the Criminal Code (« hooliganism »).

Not unexpectedly, the Party of the Regions is making it abundantly clear that they have not given up the idea of measures against “libel”.

On 26 September two assailants beat up journalist from the TV programme “Hroshi” [Money] on 1 + 1, Dmytro Volkov. According to Maxim Shylenko, Head of the 1 + 1 Investigative Department, he is in hospital with injuries to the jaw and bruising around the head. A tomogram has been taken.

The civic movement Stop Censorship believes the draft law criminalizing defamation, passed on Tuesday in its first reading, is a threat to journalists, bloggers, activists and users of social networks and forums who merely comment on the news.

The draft law tabled by Party of the Regions MP Vitaly Zhuravsky on re-introducing criminal liability for defamation and circulating false information has been adopted in its first reading by Ukraine’s parliament. Defamation was decriminalized back in 2003 with this generally seen by media and human rights organizations as having been a significant move forward.