Journalist for "Legal Informatics" targeted with smear campaign after investigation about Ministry of digital tranformation
Serhiy Antonenko, the founder and journalist of the online magazine “Legal Informatics”, reported to nhave been targeted with a smear caampiagn after his journalistic investigations on the Ministry of digital transformation of Ukraine. Serhiy Antonenko told it to IMI.
As Serhiy Antonenko said, on October 5 and 6, a number of websites published the news with his photo on, saying that he was an animal tormentor and he killed cats en masse in the Shevchenkivskyi district in Kyiv. At the same time, the sites referred to an alleged resident of the house of journalist Kira Boyko, who wrote a post about Antonenko on Facebook. However, the journalist noted, such a resident as Kira Boyko does not exist in his apartment block, "she is just a bot." IMI asked Kira Boyko where she got such an information about the journalist, but never received an answer.
News about Antonenko was published, in particular, on the sites: Izvestia v Ukraiyne, Argumenty and Fakty, for-ua.com , Holos , Ukrainski Novyny, vesti.ua , Versii.com , Kommentarii Ukraina , Fraza.ua , KP in Ukraine , Vlasti. net , ria-m.tv , Hyser, Apostrophe , Kyiv.Media .
After the news came out, the journalist was threatened with physical violence, dismemberment and murder on social networks.
“They started drown in the outhouse on the drain tanks on the evening of October 5, and at four in the morning on October 6, they were sending me personal messages in the messenger. They threatened to cut everything off and put a bottle in my ass. They also calledme, ”Serhiy Antonenko said.
In addition, on October 7, unknown people pasted paper advertisements on the entrances of all residential buildings in the lane where the journalist lives.
Also on this day, an ad appeared on the OLX website "I will offer Persian kittens for free", where the phone number of the journalist was indicated. As a result, he received more than a hundred calls in a few days from all over Ukraine.
Serhiy Antonenko links the attack to his journalistic activities, in particular, corruption investigations into the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the state-owned company Diya, etc. Serhiy Antonenko also said that on September 13 he took part in a protest action of IT specialists under the Cabinet of Ministers, supported by IT-Sich and the Democratic Ax. According to him, he spoke about his investigations at the rally.
He believes that the attack was ordered by the Ministry of Finance to avenge his investigation.
Photo credits: legalinform.org
We should note that on the site of "Legal Informatics" most of the stories are related to the activities of the Ministry of Digital Tranformation of Ukraine
IMI asked the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s press service to comment on the incident, but did not receive any answer. IMI is ready to publish the comment of the Ministry when it receives it.
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