I expect the police to address the abuse against the mass media – Yurchyshyn on the attacks on media outlets

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, expects the police to respond to the attacks on the Bihus.Info team and the journalist Yuriy Nikolov, according to his post on Facebook.

He noted that the credentials of a journalist, a prosecutor or a deputy are not and cannot be grounds for breaking the law, referring to the video of several Bihus.Info employees using drugs.

"But covert filming, video leaks and pressure on the media are also unacceptable," the Committee chair emphasized.

He also mentioned journalist Yuriy Nikolov, whose apartment suffered a break-in attempt on January 14, with unknown persons shouting that he should go join the army and covering his door in paper notes.

"I expect that the police to address the abuse against the mass media. It is necessary to identify who was doing the spying and why and who made the content public," Yurchyshyn wrote.

As reported by IMI, the Kyiv police has begun an investigation into violent threats to the journalist Yuriy Nikolov. In a comment to the IMI Nikolov noted that he had not filed a statement to the police on this matter, but was in contact with the law enforcers. The initiative to look into the details of the incident came from the police.

As for Bihus.Info, on January 16, someone posted a video of the team's employees using drugs. It also featured a fragment of the employees' conversation recorded by unknown persons by way of wiretapping. The head of the project, Denys Bihus, explained in his address that the video was filmed covertly at a corporate party. The employees who used drugs have been fired and the editorial team is looking for new camerapeople.