Journalist Mykhailo Tkach reports SMS-bombing after a material about Kyiv street racers
Ukrainska Pravda journalist Mykhailo Tkach reported SMS-bombing and mass phone calls after the publication of his story "Wartime Fast and Furious. How the capital's residents are being terrorized by street races" on September 28. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.
According to him, he received many text messages and calls from unknown numbers.
"About 200 SMS in half an hour. Calls from Turkish, French, British numbers. [...] Dear racers, I record all conversations, and the numbers from which you or your friends are calling me, too. Saying this just so that there are no surprises for you later," he wrote.
In the story, UP journalists observed street racing enthusiasts in Kyiv in late August – early September. Tkach recalled that on June 26, the Kyiv City Council banned vehicles to move without noise absorbers during martial law.
UP journalists believe that the rumble of the engines of street racing fans in the capital of the country, which lives in war conditions, looks defiant and at least inappropriate at a time when many Ukrainians live with post-traumatic syndrome as a result of Russian aggression.
"We deliberately do not tell, but show what we happened to see on the streets of Kyiv. Because this content obviously does not need any comments, but only a harsh reaction of the relevant authorities and complete disappearance of street races and loud cars from Kyiv streets as a result," the caption to the story says.
Mykhailo Tkach called on the street racers to stop trying to pressure him, and also called on everyone to talk without threats and appeals.
"Stop trying to pressure me, please. Currently, I have been recognized as a victim in seven criminal proceedings, and I do not want to waste time and energy on an eighth. Because it should be and will be as follows. As a journalist, I continue to turn people's attention to the problem – I just show things as they are, even without off-screen comments," he wrote.
IMI has written to Mykhailo Tkach for details about the situation.
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