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KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the surveillance of journalists at Bihus.Info, a media outlet regularly investigating corruption in Ukraine.
“Security Service has launched an investigation and will discover all the circumstances. Any pressure on journalists is unacceptable,” Zelenskyy said in an address on Wednesday. Earlier Wednesday, Zelenskyy met with Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, to discuss the matter.
Zelenskyy’s condemnation came two days after a video was posted online showing cameramen and some other members of the Bihus.Info team ordering different kinds of illegal drugs over the phone and then consuming them during their New Year’s office party in the suburbs of Kyiv.
Denys Bihus, head of Bihus.Info, said the staffers caught on video doing drugs were fired for violating the values of the company.
“Of course, the wiretapping and surveillance was illegal. That does not excuse what we saw on the video — namely the use of illegal substances by several of our colleagues,” Bihus said in a video statement.
Bihus said he later found out his team was under surveillance for about a year, allegedly by Ukrainian law enforcement. The exact details about the surveillance and its perpetrators are not known.
“This does not look like a revenge for one , but an attempt to pressure journalists systematically uncovering the corruption of current and previous governments,” Bihus said. “But I don’t get how can it discredit our work for the sake of Ukraine.”
The Bihus.Info video was published a day after unidentified men tried to intimidate another journalist, Yurii Nikolov, who is known for investigations into defense corruption in Ukraine. Nikolov claimed men in military uniform showed up near his door screaming, calling him a “draft dodger” and scaring his mother.
Ukrainian media freedom movement Mediarukh condemned the incidents as signs of systematic pressure on journalists and called on Zelenskyy to react.
The National Police of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine have started separate investigations into both incidents.
“Transparent and unimpeded work of independent and professional media is an important condition for developing Ukraine as a democratic state. Such surveillance facts should be given a legal assessment, regardless of whether or not the facts of a possible violation of the law related to the circulation of narcotic substances were uncovered in the materials of the covert filming,” the Security Service said in a statement.
