Bihus.Info was wiretapped for at least several months, says editor

Bihus.Info employees were wiretapped and surveiled for at least several months. The project's team is now working to identify the people behind this, said Bihus.Info editor Maksym Opanasenko in a comment to hromadske.

"We see and realise that the wiretapping and surveillance had gone on for too long – at least several months. As of now, we have no evidence and we cannot say if the person 'behind it', so to speak, is subordinate to the President's Office or someone else," he noted.

The editor noted that the Bihus.Info team has long been doing peculiar work involving a large number of officials and police officers. Opanasenko pointed out that some of the project's latest investigations were high-profile materials on law enforcers.

"We cannot rule out that this was also an attempt at pressure through such persecution," concluded the editor of the investigative journalism project.

Bihus.Info is considering filing a statement with the police about surveillance of the project's employees, and is also working independently to find out "who is behind it."

As the IMI reported, on January 16, the head of the Bihus.Info project, Denys Bihus, recorded a statement in response to a provocative video shared online, in which his employees negotiate the purchase of drugs and use them, and reported unlawful surveillance and wiretapping. He also announced staff changes.

The director of the Institute of Mass Information, Oksana Romaniuk, demands that the authorities address systematic pressure on journalists. She said this while commenting on the pressure on journalist Yuriy Nikolov, whose apartment suffered a break-in attempt by unknown men, and the Bihus.Info team.

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, has also said that expects the police to respond to the attacks on the Bihus.Info team and the journalist Yuriy Nikolov.