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Authorities identified residents of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy Oblasts and searched the suspects’ homes. Law enforcement seized computer equipment and mobile phones used to record the threats.
Investigative journalists in Ukraine came under two attacks in just the past week, one involving a threatening home visit and another using covert surveillance. The two incidents are the latest in a series of discrediting campaigns against independent Ukrainian media, often supported by anonymous pro-government Telegram channels, raising concerns about increasing pressure on press freedom in wartime Ukraine. “These are not ordinary cases when journalists are obstructed by (someone’s) security guards, for example, or not allowed to go somewhere,” Oksana Romaniuk, the head of the Institute of Mass Information, a Ukrainian NGO monitoring violations of freedom of speech, told the Kyiv Independent.
The Prosecutor General's Office said that the case is investigated as obstructing journalistic work. The penalty for the crime ranges from a fine to four years in prison.
Ukrainian investigative journalist Yurii Nikolov said on Monday that he received a visit from unidentified people threatening him. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) and their affiliates in Ukraine, NUJU and IMTUU, call on the Ukrainian authorities to identify the perpetrators of the threats and ensure the protection of the journalist.
Yurii Nikolov, one of Ukraine's prominent investigative journalists who revealed procurement wrongdoing in the Defense Ministry under its previous leadership, said on Jan. 15 that he received a visit from unidentified people threatening him.