Freedom of Speech Barometer for March 2025
The Institute of Mass Information experts recorded nine freedom of speech violations in Ukraine in March, according to the IMI’s monthly monitoring study “Freedom of Speech Barometer”.
Six of these were committed by Russia and included death threats and intimidation of media workers, damage to media offices, and cyber attacks.
Four media professionals turned soldiers were killed by Russian forces in March:
- Arthur Shybalov, a PTV UA cameraman and video editor turned soldier. Killed in action in the Kursk region (Russia) on March 13, 2025.
- Yuriy Kirpik, a producer of Starlight Media projects. His death was reported by his colleague, Starlight Media executive producer Oleksandr Bykov, on March 13, 2025.
- Kyrylo Polikevych, a Suspilne Dnipro videographer turned soldier. Killed in action on March 16 while performing a combat mission near Preobrazhenka, Pokrovsk district, Donetsk oblast.
- Dmytro Bendikov, a TSN.ua website editor turned army officer. Killed in action while performing a combat mission in the East of Ukraine on March 18, 2025.
A total of 102 media professionals have been killed in Ukraine over the course of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Diagram by the IMI
The online media outlet Pershyi Kryvorizkyi received death threats and emails claiming that a bomb had been planted in their editorial office, with one email featuring a video allegedly showing the bomb being planted.
Offices of two online media outlets were affected by Russian shelling strikes: the ceiling in Zaporizhzhia's inform.zp.ua crumbled, and the Oboz.ua office in Kyiv was damaged (the blast wave blew out windows and doors in the office building, and the Oboz TV studio sustained significant damage).
Two media outlets reported cyber attacks. These were Kremenchutskyi Telegraf, whose website was down due to a DDoS attack which the team attributed to Russia, and PTV UA (the latter was hacked, with hackers posting a video calling for the overthrow of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky). Both teams suspect russian involvement in the attacks.
The IMI also recorded three freedom of speech violations unrelated to Russia's war on Ukraine. These were restrictions on journalists' access to public information.
Such cases were recorded:
- in Kyiv (the Shevchenkivskyi District Court barred journalists from attending a hearing on the reinstatement of Professor Mykyta Vasylenko as lecturer at the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv);
- in Chernihiv (Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, chair of the Chernihiv City Military Administration, provided incomplete information in response to a query by Suspilne Chernihiv journalists. The journalists were asking for the full names of all Chernihiv CMA staff, among other questions);
- in Ternopil (20 Khvylyn only received the full data on the salaries of the Mayor and all his assistants, advisors, and deputies after appealing to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights).
Read the full monitoring below.
RUSSIA'S CRIMES
Death threats – 2
1. Pershyi Kryvorizkyi team receives bomb threats throughout the day
12.03.2025 The Pershyi Kryvorizkyi team was receiving emails claiming that a bomb had been planted in their office building throughout March 12. A total of 4 anonymous letters were sent to the media outlet’s inbox, with two arriving 1 minute apart and being identical in content, reports the media outlet's executive director Sofia Skyba to Kateryna Lysiuk, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Dnipropetrovska oblast.
In the letters, the unknown sender addresses two local media outlets and claims that a tetryl explosive device has been planted in their buildings. The sender adds that they have planted similar explosives in kindergartens and schools, describes the impact of the upcoming explosions, and expresses hatred for both the media professionals and children in the schools.
“There has been a long break since late February, and today we started receiving emails about bombs allegedly planted in our office building again. The letter also mentions another organization. We received 4 letters in total: all from different email addresses. Some were sent from Russian services, which our mail recognizes," said Sofia Skyba. The executive director said that the police have been notified of the letters: "The police arrived a couple of hours later. We filed our statements, everything as usual. As for the investigation into the previous ones, we do not know whether there is any progress in the cases. No one contacted us," said Sofia Skyba.
Senior communications inspector of the Kryvyi Rih district police department, Angelina Kradozhon, reported in a comment to the IMI representative that at 2:20 p.m. the police received a report about a bomb planted in the building where the media outlet's office is located.
“Specialists of the relevant service have left for the scene, the inspection is still ongoing,” Kradozhon said.
She added that today, in addition to this statement, they received reports about bombs planted in the city's schools and that those facilities were being inspected as well.
2. Pershyi Kryvorizkyi receives video of a bomb being planted in their office, death threats
13.03.2025 On March 13, two journalists with the online media outlet Pershyi Kryvorizkyi received messages threatening to blow up the building where their office is located, reports the media outlet's executive director Sofia Skyba to Kateryna Lysiuk, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Dnipropetrovska oblast.
Journalist Maria Puntus received a message to her personal Telegram account with a threat to blow up the editorial office. The unknown sender called his actions “a game that has just begun” but would start with the editorial office being destroyed. They claimed to have installed an explosive device with a clockwork mechanism that had started the countdown the moment the message had been sent, and called any attempts to find the device futile. For the first time, the sender attached a 14-second video which allegedly shows them planting the bomb and setting the timer to support his claims.
At about the same time, another journalist, Yevhenia Bykova, received an email whose anonymous sender claimed they intended to come to the editorial office and murder everyone. The sender said that they had already left the schools where they had planted bombs and now planned to come to the building where the Pershyi Kryvorizkyi office is located and “shoot everyone I see.” They gave the exact time of their arrival and said that they had enough weapons to purge the entire building, and then they would blow themselves up.
“Our two journalists who received the message assume that the sender got their contacts from the city chat room which our media outlet launched about seven years ago, probably. They often use their personal accounts to talk to the audience there,” said Skyba. She added that the topics these journalists actively report on include fighting Russian propaganda.
These are not the first anonymous bombing threats received by Pershyi Kryvorizkyi. In 2025 alone, the media outlet has received about a dozen and a half messages via email or messenger apps claiming that bombs had been planted in the building in which their office is located. The staff of the media outlet reported the latest bombing threats to the relevant services immediately.
“We appreciate the work of the police and understand all the complexities of the situation. We are also tired of this, and we understand that these attacks are most likely aimed at sabotaging our nervous systems in order to make the police tired of such cases and of documenting war crimes, etc. However, we would like to know whether the cases are moving forward. Everyone who comes to the call always takes our statements as politely as possible, no issues with that, we trust them. But what's next? The investigators do not talk to us!” said Sofia Skyba.
Damage to media offices – 2
1. Ceiling crumbles in inform.zp.ua office due to Zaporizhzhia shelling strike
21.03.2025 The Russian shelling strike on Zaporizhzhia on March 21 damaged the office of the online media outlet inform.zp.ua: the ceiling in one of the rooms crumbled, reports chief editor Eric Brynza to the Institute of Mass Information representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast, Natalia Vyhovska.
According to him, the office was damaged by the blast wave during the Shahed strike on Zaporizhzhia when one of the drones exploded 300 meters away from the office, on the premises of a kindergarten.
“Thank God, it’s only one room. We had an accounting documents archive there and also used it as a kitchenette. My office is across the wall from this room. The offices with laptops, cameras, and the studio are intact. And that’s very good,” the editor said.
A CCTV camera at the office entrance recorded the damage at 9:04 p.m. There was no one in the editorial office at that time, so there were no casualties.
According to the Telegram channel of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration chair Ivan Fedorov, at least 24 high-rise buildings and more than 20 private houses were damaged in the Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia on March 21. The attack killed a family: a father, mother, and 17-year-old daughter. A total of 94 people sought help.
On October 12, 2024, the relocated Holos Hulyaipillya office was damaged in a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia. Computer equipment, which had been previously transported out of a combat area, was also damaged.
2. Oboz.ua office damaged in Russian attack on Kyiv
23.03.2025 The Oboz.ua office was damaged in the Russian attack on Kyiv the night of March 23, the online media outlet reports.
The blast wave blew out windows and doors in the office building, and the studio where Oboz TV had been broadcasting from before Russia's full-scale invasion was seriously damaged.
Cyber attacks – 2
1. Kremenchutskyi Telegraf reports DDoS attack, suspects Russia
10.03.2025 The website of the Poltava oblast media outlet Kremenchutskyi Telegraf is down due to a DDoS attack, the team reported on March 10 on Telegram.
“Unfortunately, the website is inaccessible at the moment, but our technicians are already doing everything to restore the access. Thank you for your understanding,” the media outlet wrote.
The editorial team added that they would continue to inform readers and post news on social media.
Chief editor Lesya Lazorenko said in a comment to Nadia Kucher, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Poltava oblast, that the media outlet had been subjected to a DDoS attack on the night of March 10. She attributed the attack to Russia and added that they were working to restore the website.
2. Website of Poltava's PTV UA hacked, posts video calling for a coup
15.03.2025 The website of the Politava-based channel PTV UA was hacked on March 15. Hackers posted a video calling for the overthrow of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, reports PTV UA editor Leonid Avramenko to Nadiya Kucher, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Poltava.
The website has since been partially restored. Leonid Avramenko says that IT specialists are working to restore some of the previously published content.
“Instead of the website's materials there was a video of a woman talking about a coup, generated with a neural network,” says Avramenko. The editor said that over the weekend they noticed that all articles on the website had the headline “Urgent address by PTV UA.”
“The articles contained a link to someone else’s video. We realized that the website had been hacked. We promptly contacted the IT specialists maintaining our website. Now they are working on improving our website's security,” said Leonid Avramenko.
He added that the editorial team suspects Russian involvement in the attack, because the video led to harmful statements about Ukraine's statehood.
THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH SITUATION IN UKRAINE FOR WHICH UKRAINE CITIZENS ARE RESPONSIBLE
CENSORSHIP, TOPIC GUIDELINES, ACCESS TO INFORMATION
Journalists' access to information – 3
1. Journalists barred from court hearing on reinstatement of professor Vasylenko
10.03.2025 The Shevchenkivskyi District Court declined journalists’ request for admission to a court hearing considering the reinstatement of Professor Mykyta Vasylenko as lecturer at the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Hromadske reports.
Vasylenko’s lawyer said that she objected to journalists' presence at the hearing, because it would consider “technical issues” and not “what the press may be interested in.” She said they would only be challenging the professor's dismissal while he was temporarily unable to work.
She says that Vasylenko went on sick leave on December 25, 2024, which was supposed to last until December 30, due to a hypertensive crisis. His students, who were also barred from attending the hearing, believe that their former professor went on sick leave intentionally.
“From what we learned, Vasylenko took sick leave the day before the department hearing, right at the last moment before the hearing, seemingly so that a dismissal order would be unlawful. (…) I, like all the students, hope for a fair ruling by the court, which, we hope, realizes why Vasylenko took sick leave and that such professors have no place in our education,” says Anastasia Kerpan, former student at the Institute of Journalism.
The court guards said that the students were not allowed into the courtroom because it was too small, but the students say that there was room for at least three people there. Despite this, they were barred from attending and were also “treated very disrespectfully” and called “the support group.”
The university believes that Vasylenko’s dismissal was “in compliance with the law” and their lawyers will present this position in court, said NUK Rector Volodymyr Buhrov.
He added that if the court sides with the professor, the university may simply not renew his contract.
Ultimately, the court hearing was postponed because Vasylenko’s defense requested the full copies of the dismissal orders.
On December 18, 2024, Mykyta Vasylenko, a lecturer at the Institute of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, made unethical remarks about Ukrainian women, saying that “foreign soldiers coming to Ukraine will improve the demographic situation.” He said this on the air of the Russian media outlet politnavigator.net, which is banned in Ukraine according to a 2018 presidential decree.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets prepared letters to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Security Service of Ukraine with a request to review Mykyta Vasylenko's activities in view of his unethical remarks about Ukrainian women.
The student parliament of the Institute of Journalism at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv called on the Center for Countering Disinformation under the NSDC to provide media coverage and investigate Vasylenko’s activities and his public statements.
On December 24, 2024, the Taras Shevchenko NUK rector Volodymyr Buhrov promised to “take action” against Professor Mykyta Vasylenko following another scandal around him.
On December 26, the Academic Council of the Institute of Journalism at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv asked the rector Volodymyr Buhrov to terminate the contract with the professor.
On December 27, 2024, the management of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv prematurely terminated Mykyta Vasylenko's contract.
2. Chair of Chernihiv CMA gives incomplete answer to Suspilne query
12.03.2025 Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, chair of the Chernihiv City Military Administration, provided incomplete information in response to a query by Suspilne Chernihiv journalists, reports chief editor Andriy Titok to the Institute of Mass Information representative in Chernihiv oblast.
“One of the things we wanted to know was the first and last names of all Chernihiv CMA staff. As soon as the CMA chair received the query, he claimed on his social media that our query sought to find out classified information, although this is not the case and the people of Chernihiv have the right to know the names of officials who receive taxpayers' money. More than 20 days later, we received the replies to our queries and the CMA head provided no information about the administration staff,” said Andriy Titok.
Volodymyr Zelenchuk, the lawyer at the Institute of Mass Information, says that providing incomplete information is a violation of the law on access to public information on par with providing no information at all.
“First, the response deadline may have been violated, as more than 20 days passed between the submission of the queries and the registration of the reply. Second, the administration may have deliberately ignored the requirement to provide the full names of all employees, not just the management,” the lawyer said.
He noted that Part 2 of Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On Personal Data Protection” states, “The personal data related to the performance of official duties by a person authorized to perform state or local authorities functions, is not classified information.”
Volodymyr Zelenchuk advised the journalists to file a complaint with the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights or appeal the administration’s actions to the administrative court. However, either will be a lengthy process, the lawyer added.
The Suspilne Chernihiv team is now preparing a complaint to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.
Andriy Titok added that communication with the Chernihiv City Military Administration and its chair Dmytro Bryzhynskyi has always been difficult. The administration chair conveyed through his press office that he would communicate with Suspilne journalists through information queries exclusively.
“This is their right, although we disagree with this approach to communication. We started submitting queries, which Dmytro Bryzhynskyi started posting on his social media. Unfortunately, we did not receive complete answers to all queries, not to mention the fact that the answers to some of the queries had lost their relevance by the time they were sent to us. There was even a case when we asked for more information on one of the queries and were told to submit another query,” noted the editor-in-chief of Suspilne Chernihiv.
Dmytro Bryzhynskyi posts all information queries sent by Suspilne journalists and the replies to them on his social media.
In 2023, Mediabaza Chernihiv, the Institute of Mass Information's regional hub, surveyed local journalists to identify the local officials, deputies, institutions and structural divisions of government bodies who are the least open in communication with journalists and openly violate the rights of media representatives.
During May 30 – June 5, 2023, 21 media professionals took part in the survey. These were journalists with the TV channels Novyi Chernihiv, Dytynets, Suspilne Chernihiv, the newspapers Vest and Visnyk Ch, the Chernihiv Media Group, the websites Cheline, Chas Chernihivskyi and Svoboda.FM.
Later, the Chernihiv military administration requested that the IMI representative in Chernihiv oblast, Pavlo Pushchenko, disclose the results of the editorial voting that IMI received as part of the poll determining the winner of the anti-award "Chernihivsky Budyak".
Mediabaza Chernihiv organized an "off the record" meeting between mass media representatives and Dmytro Bryzhynskyi to facilitate communication.
20.03.2025 The Ternopil media outlet 20 Khvylyn only received the full data on the salaries of the Mayor and all his assistants, advisors, and deputies after appealing to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner, chief editor Natalia Burlaku reports on Facebook.
"20 Khvylyn regularly reports on the salaries of officials of various structures. We don't wait for the annual declaration reports. And this is definitely not our first material. But it took three months to get full data on the salaries paid to Serhiy Nadal, his deputies, assistants and advisors. We had the long 'song and dance' with the City Council, who either told us they would have to print out 122 pages, which no one asked for, or gave us 'bare data' on total amounts without itemization. But we did get the 'full picture' in the end, although we had to turn to the Human Rights Commissioner for help. At his request, we were given an opportunity to review all the materials we requested,” the media outlet's head wrote.
According to 20 Khvylyn, the journalists tried to obtain data on the salaries paid to City Council officials as of December 16, 2024, which is when the first query was sent.
The City Council extended the query processing period for 20 days and later respondend with a request to pay 336 UAH, since that is how much printing out copies of all documents (122 pages) would cost. However, the media outlet was asking to send the response by email.
“Since the City Council did not provide us with the first 10 pages of data free of charge, as they were supposed to according to the Law of Ukraine 'On Access to Public Information', the journalist replied to the City Council, explaining that the requested information is of public interest and therefore no fee should be charged for copying and printing such information. But the City Council disagreed with this statement and refused,” the media outlet reports.
In their next query, the media workers asked for the first 10 pages of the requested information and “to designate a room for us to review the rest of the documents or their copies, make extracts from them, take photographs, etc., which also complies with the Law of Ukraine 'On Access to Public Information.'”
20 Khvylyn journalists report that the City Council did respond after that, providing them with data on the salaries accrued and paid to the city mayor, his deputies and advisors. However, the information was summarized and did not list the specific bonuses, additional payments, material benefits, vacation pay, etc., which the journalists had asked for in the first query.
After that, the media outlet's journalist reported the violation of the right to access public information to the Human Rights Commissioner. Only then did the journalist receive the first 10 pages of the requested information by email and was able to review all 122 pages of documents in person at the City Council.
“As it turned out during our visit to the City Council, the number of pages was explained by the fact that they were preparing to give us information on the salaries of all City Council employees, and not just the mayor, his deputies and advisers,” wrote 20 Khvylyn.
Only after that did the journalists write an article on the salaries of Ternopil City Council officials.
In 2023, the Ternopil City Council refused to disclose the officials' salaries to a 20 Khvylyn journalist, saying they would provide the answers after martial law is lifted. The officials also argued that they were doing this to "prevent manipulation of public opinion and incitement to property- or social status-based unrest."
Also in 2023, the Ternopil Oblast Military Administration only provided Misto journalist with information on the 2022–2023 income of the chair and his deputies after she appealed to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.
The overall number of access denial complaints to Commissiner from Ternopil oblast grew by 28% in 2024.
DEFENDING FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The authorities' response to freedom of speech violations – 3
1. Mykolaiv police closes case on journalists being barred from the City Council
03.03.2025 The Mykolaiv police have closed the previously initiated proceedings on denial of access to the Mykolaiv City Council building to journalists, according to the response by Kyrylo Barashkovskyi, chief of investigations at the Mykolaiv oblast police, to an information query from Kateryna Sereda, the regional representative of the Institute of Mass Information.
In May 2024, journalists from MykVisty tried to enter the Mykolaiv City Council building to get comments from officials after a staff meeting. However, they were not allowed inside, allegedly due to new access regulations. According to these, mass media representatives can only enter the building with a one-time digital pass issued based on lists prepared by the City Council's organizational department, and only if they are escorted by employees of the media support department.
On July 26, 2024, following a news story by the Institute of Mass Information, the police opened a case on obstruction of reporting.
However, the Mykolaiv police found no corpus delicti and closed the case.
“On October 22, 2024, the proceedings were closed on the basis of Clause 2, Part 1, Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (lack of a corpus delicti. – Note). At present, the resolution on closing the proceedings in question has not been canceled,” the response to the query states.
It was previously reported that the Mykolaiv City Council plans to use artificial intelligence during their sessions, namely to automatize the process of reading draft decisions aloud.
2. Court closes case of attack on Skhemy journalists at Ukreximbank
17.03.2025 The Kyiv Court of Appeal closed the case over the attack on the Skhemy filming crew at the state-owned Ukreximbank in the fall of 2021 due to the statute of limitations for prosecuting the former Ukreximbank CEO Yevhen Metzher, former chief of banking security Ihor Telbizov, and former chief of internal security Oleh Osipov having expired.
The panel of judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal issued the ruling on March 17, reports Radio Liberty.
The court granted the defendants’ motions and released them from liability.
“On the basis of Article 49 of the Criminal Code, Y. V. Metzher is released from liability under Part 1 of Article 171 and Part 3 of Article 171; I. G. Telbizov and O. L. Osipov are both released from liability under Part 1 of Article 171, Part 2 of Article 171, and Part 1 of Article 126 due to the statute of limitations having expired,” Judge Marharyta Vasylieva announced in the ruling.
The journalists’ lawyers said they plan to appeal to the ECHR.
On October 4, 2021, employees of the state-owned Ukreximbank attacked the "Skhemy" filming crew as they were recording an interview with the bank's board chairman Yevhen Metzher right in his office in Kyiv. When asked about a loan to structures affiliated with the "DPR," Metzher ordered that the journalists' cameras be taken away, the recordings of the interview be destroyed, and prohibited further filming. Moreover, the journalists were unlawfully detained in the office, not allowed to leave. Ihor Telbizov used violence against the journalists.
There are four defendants in the case: Ukreximbank's former board chairman Yevhen Metzher, the bank's ex-chief of information policy Volodymyr Pikalov, ex-chief of banking security Ihor Telbizov, and chief of internal security Oleh Osipov. They pleaded not guilty.
It was reported in January 2023 that the information policy director at Ukreximbank, Volodymyr Pikalov, had been conscripted.
During the trial in the first instance court, Yevhen Metzher, Ihor Telbizov, and Oleh Osipov pleaded not guilty. Telbizov emphasized that he had been performing his duties and had not breached any laws. Metzher claimed that he had not given any instructions regarding the journalists and that he had been provoked. Osipov explained that he was elsewhere during the incident.
On September 14, 2022, the Holosiivsky District Court of Kyiv fined Yevhen Metzher (UAH 3400), Ihor Telbizov, and Oleh Osipov (UAH 1700 each), finding them guilty under Part 1 and Part 3 of Article 171 ("Illegal seizure of materials collected by a journalist and their technical equipment, obstruction of the journalist's work committed by an official abusing their official position") and Part 1 of Article 126 (“Beating and assault”) of the Criminal Code.
In January 2023, the Skhemy journalists' lawyers asked the Court of Appeal for a harsher penalty for Yevhen Metzher, namely to deprive him of the right to hold managerial positions in state bodies, local governments, state or communal enterprises for three years.
Defendants Ihor Telbizov and Oleh Osipov also contested their dismissal from the state-owned bank in the Court to Appeal. In December 2023, it was reported that the first instance courts reinstated Telbizov and Osipov and ordered Ukreximbank to pay off their salaries for the period they had missed.
3. Rivne police is investigating smear campaign against Chetverta Vlada
26.03.2025 The police have launched an investigation into the smear campaign targeting the investigative journalism agency Chetverta Vlada, reported the Rivne Oblast and District Prosecutor's Offices in their responses to inquiries by the Institute of Mass Information.
In late 2024, the Rivne District Police Department initiated a pre-trial investigation into obstruction of reporting (Part 2, Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The Rivne District Prosecutor's Office clarified that the investigation had been initiated following the online release of the article "The Russian Orthodox Church abroad or the Job of Pochayiv parish – the little secret of the Torbichs, possible separatists".
“The actions of the unidentified author of the article are seen as influencing a journalist in order to prevent them from reporting,” the District Prosecutor's Office said in response to the IMI's inquiry.
As the IMI reported, the websites CRiME, News24 and Press Center, which claim to be news outlets, released identical, potentially commissioned articles titled "The Russian Orthodox Church abroad or the Job of Pochayiv parish – the little secret of the Torbichs, possible separatists" on October 31 and November 1, 2024.
Antonina and Volodymyr Torbich are a couple and co-editors of the investigative journalism agency Chetverta Vlada.
The articles are written as exposure and allege that Chetverta Vlada has ties to the Russian special services because the deputy editor Antonina Torbich shares a registration address with a Moscow Patriarchate congregation.
This allegation is false, as there is no data on the congregation in question being registered at the indicated address in any of the Ukrainian registers. In addition, Antonina Torbich told the IMI that she never lived at that address, either.
“Of course, I would like the police to find out who commissioned this article. Then we could check our hypothesis using our connection search tools. We could check our hypothesis on whether this person has ties to our city authorities, because we assume that this was the source of the surge in commissioned content about Chetverta Vlada's work. There are doubts that the police will be able to do this. We will see,” Antonina Torbich told the IMI in a comment.
As reported earlier, there were three more articles targeting Chetverta Vlada following this wave of mudslinging. In December 2024, unknown persons staged a (probably commissioned) rally in front of the Rivne City Court in order to discredit the media outlet's chief editor and his deputy.
The Chetverta Vlada team believes that the negative campaign was triggered by the release of an article criticizing Yana Yevtushok, the Rivne Council chief of communications. According to the investigators, representatives of the party / NGO Rivne Razom, founded by Viktor Shakyrzyan, the current acting mayor of Rivne, may also be involved in the smear campaign. The team also suggests that Viktor Shakyrzyan’s close aide and business partner, Roman Kurys, is involved in both the previous and more recent cases of defamation targeting the media outlet.
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