Espreso TV says they were offered money for taking down a blog post

The editorial team of Espreso TV say that they were offered a bribe to take down Serhiy Zhurets’s blog post “Costly Rarity: Why the Defense Ministry Agency Buys Second World War Era Anti-Tank Mines” from their website, Espreso TV reports.

The January 13 blog post discussed the Defense Procurement Agency's contract to purchase of hundreds of thousands of M6A2 anti-tank mines, manufactured in 1941 or later, at a price of about 600 euros per unit. The total price of the contracted purchase exceeds 200 million euros.

“The report caused gained considerable traction and sparked a wide discussion of the facts it revealed regarding the purchase of outdated weapons at inflated prices. The report also called into question the technical suitability of this ammunition and the efficiency of budget spending,” the statement said.

As the editorial office notes, after the release of the blog post, they received offers of financial compensation through intermediaries for taking the report down.

“The Espreso team remains an independent and unbiased media platform that is not afraid to cover resonant topics, regardless of pressure or attempts at influence. Our editorial policy excludes any agreements on the removal of published material,” the media outlet said in a statement.

Espreso addressed any interested parties to stress that any offers of financial compensation for the removal of content from the website are futile and will not be considered on principle.

“Such proposals are a waste of time: the editorial team will never compromise on its principles and journalistic standards,” the media outlet said.

The Defense Procurement Agency (DPA) stated in a comment to Detector Media that they had nothing to do with the attempt to take the blog post down.

“The Defense Procurement Agency has nothing to do with the attempt to remove this blog post from the website. We have provided the DPA’s official position on the facts presented in this report. But demanding that an independent media outlet take down any report is totally inconsistent with our information policy and values. Given that this report received a great deal of attention and was widely circulated, it is absolutely absurd, so it looks like another attempt to frame the Agency,” the DPA press office said.

The DPA has contacted Espreso with a request for evidence of correspondence that may suggest financial pressure on the editorial team.

In March 2024, Espreso TV and the civil society initiative Holka reported attempts to take down an article related to the work of the "Servant of the People" party chair Olena Shulyak and the deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov from the espreso.tv website.