The Commission on Journalism Ethics (CJE) demands an immediate and transparent investigation into the violation of the privacy of journalists profiled by the Midas case suspects.
The Commission released a statement to this effect on 16 December, after the list of journalists targeted in the unlawful personal data gathering campaign was released.
On 15 December 2025, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, chair of the parliamentary Freedom of Speech Committee, posted a list of media workers whose dossiers were maintained by the suspects in the corruption case “Operation Midas”. The list featured the Commission on Journalism Ethics chair, Andriy Kulykov.
The CJE stressed that unlawful surveillance, gathering intelligence about the private lives of journalists, or any forms of pressure on the media were unacceptable, contradict Ukraine’s Constitution as well as the state’s international obligations, and pose a threat to freedom of speech and national security amid a full-scale war.
The statement also mentions other risks posed by the illegal collecting of journalists’ personal data. Such information can potentially be used by Russian intelligence to discredit Ukrainian institutions, as well as to blackmail, recruit, or physically endanger journalists working on investigations related to the defense industry, security, and corruption.
The Commission on Journalim Ethics addressed the state’s top officials with a demand to “publicly confirm they have zero tolerance for unlawful operations against journalists.” The Commission demanded that the Verkhovna Rada boost the parliamentary oversight over the work of law enforcement bodies in terms of interference in the work of the media, in particular by holding parliamentary hearings on the issue.
The CJE emphasised that freedom of speech and the safety of journalists are fundamental prerequisites for the stability of Ukrainian democracy in wartime.
Previously
As IMI reported, the suspects in the Midas graft case had compiled hundreds of “dossiers” on journalists, officialsm and NABU detectives. Oleksandr Abakumov, chief detective at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, said these included 10 journalists investigating corruption, such as Yuriy Nikolov and Oleksa Shalayskyi.
NABU announced a special operation to expose corruption in the energy sector on 10 November 2025. The investigation revealed that the persons involved in a criminal organisation had built a large-scale scheme to influence strategic state-sector enterprises such as Energoatom.
Law enforcement operatives detained five of the seven suspects. These included a businessman whom the investigation considers the head of the criminal organisation, a former advisor to the Minister of Energy, and Energoatom’s executive director for physical protection and security.
Suspicion notices were issued to businessman, Kvartal-95 studio co-founder Timur Mindich (code name “Carlson” on NABU tapes), former advisor to the Minister of Energy, Ihor Myroniuk (“Rocket”), Energoatom’s executive director for security, Dmytro Basov (“Tenor”), and four “employees” of the so-called “money laundering back office”, including Oleksandr Zukerman (“Sugarman”), Ihor Fursenko (“Ryoshik”), Lesya Ustymenko, and Lyudmyla Zorina. Five people from the list of suspects have been detained. Two, Timur Mindich and Oleksandr Zukerman, have left Ukraine.
