Photo credits: screenshot from video of Zakhid.net
In Lviv, on May 28th, one of the participants in a street protest near the mayor’s office, a member of the Ukranian union of participants of anti-terroristic operation (USU ATO) Serhiy Favorsky made obstruction to work and threatened to use physical force against a journalist for a web-based edition Zaxid.net Andriy Drozdy,
as to Zakhid.net.
The incident happened at the press briefing of the organizers of the rally. As Zaxid.net reported, the member of the USU ATO intervened as the journalist was speaking to another participant of the rally, Oleksander Tsyhylyk. The latter is the son of the co-founder of the community formation "Development of the community" and person whose activity surrounding the seizure of 6 hectares of land near the village Sknyliv (the vicinity of the airport of Lviv) was investigated by Zakhid.net.
The journalist for Zaxid.net asked Oleksandr Tsyhylyk what was about the land parcel in Sknyliv. At that time, Serhiy Favorsky, a member of the USU ATO, intervened in the conversation, accusing the journalist of lies and breaches of journalistic ethics.
"Serhiy Favorsky tried not to let me speak to Oleksander Tsyhylyk and stopped him when he tried to answer something. He claimed I was paid-for and I would not to communicate to Oleksander Tsyhylyk. Then I asked Serhiy Favorsky whether they paid him for protection of Oleksander Tsyhylyk. He replied: "And don’t you want I hit you on your face now for such words?" Andriy Drozda related the incident.
Later, when the camera was switched off, Serhiy Favorsky reiterated his threats. The Zaxid.net edition has an audio record of these words.
"(…) I tell you: if you insult me, then I'll hit you really on your face. You want to tell the truth - I won’t say a word to you, and if you go on playing your role, then I'll hit you on your face. Remember these words. I'll find how to do it during the day, after dinner. This is not a threat, it is a statement of fact. Well, let it be so - it's a threat, " Serhiy Favorsky said.
"SerhiymFavorsky confirmed that his words were threat. He does not like how our edition covered his organization’s activities. I take seriously these threats and will certainly file a complaint to the police as to this incident ", Andriy Drozda told.
Zaxid.net claimed the editorial board was to lodge a complaint over obstruction to professional activity of the journalist to the police, and they would draw attention of international journalistic organizations to this incident .
The edition reminded that Serhiy Favorsky and other members of the USU ATO regularly take part in political rallies in Lviv. For its part, Zaxid.net published a series of investigations and publications over the activities of this organization, and in reaction to it, there was an attempt to make a take-over of the editorial office on December 2018.
