"20 Khvylyn" journalists report surveillance

"20 Khvylyn" journalists expose the car spying on them. Photos by "20 Khvylyn"

The Vinnytsia media outlet "20 Khvylyn" reports that the editor-in-chief Vadym Pavlov and journalist Vitaliy Pavlovsky have been spied on by the law enforcement, the website wrote on February 28.

The journalists believe the surveillance is connected with their reporting, namely the articles posted on their website:

• the November 22, 2023 article "War on illegal cigarettes: uncovered by 20 Khvylyn, searched by the police";
• the November 30, 2023 article "'This has to do with Odesa security services.' 20 Khvylyn journalists expose an underground cigarette-making shop";
• the February 14, 2024 article "The Spectr-Oil case. Gas stations protected by the security forces and the mob."

According to journalists, they have been under surveillance since the fall of 2023.

"We started noticing the same cars with different license plates, noticing minibuses with tinted windows near the places where we meet with colleagues and friends. What were we being watched for? We dont know. But we knew we were being watched. But by whom?" the journalists note.

They identified and filmed one such Fiat Tipo following them on February 26. Then the journalists called the police, but the police could not identify the car's owner, saying that there was no information about the car in their databases.

As the journalists noted, the police asked the car driver to show his ID.

"The driver opens the window a little and shows something that looks like an operational badge. The policeman turns around and says: 'The car is not subject to inspection'... After that, we realized that there were security officers inside, carrying out surveillance. They drove away, and other policemen blocked our cars so that we did not go after those who had been chasing us before. This is a kind of police cover-up," the media outlet writes.

The journalists also called the Security Service of Ukraine to the scene and filed a statement on unlawful surveillance.

As the IMI reported, the Bihus.Info team, Odesa journalist Iryna Hryb, and Politerno editor-in-chief Andriy Shchesniak (Ternopil) have reported being under surveillance earlier.