Journalist of Zakarpattia gets comments about his death in Facebook

The Facebook entry of the journalist of the newspaper “Sribna Zemlia” Stanislav Danko received a comment hinting to his death. Stanislav Stanko specializes on covering the topic of attempts to install small hydropower plants in mountain villages of Zakarpatska oblast. This was reported by IMI representative in Zakarpatska oblast. In particular, the journalist is covering how public hearings on this topic are conducted in villages and what position the village councils chairs hold on the issue. In one of his latest entries, Stanislav Danko published a video record of an interview with the head of the village Hanychi about organizing public hearings. In the comment below the interview, user Mykola Mytsa wrote: “danko will not die natural death for sure”. In response to the question of another user what he meant, user Mykola Mytsa added: “what's not to understand, pseudo activist constantly puts his nose into other people's business, I am sure at some point he will face serious payback”. In his comment for IMI representative in Zakarpatska oblast, journalist Danko said that he recognized one of the village residents in the user who left this comment. “They (those who organize the initiatives of building mini hydropower plants – ed.) have such a primitive tactics – buy or intimidate”, the journalist summarized. Also, Stanislav Danko added that in another village, Bedevlia, on August 14, the village head did not allow him as journalist to be present at a public hearing, giving as a reason that the event is for local residents only. Yet, after explaining the law regulating this, the journalist still made it to the hearing. As IMI representative mentioned, the topic of constructing mini hydropower plants on the mountain rivers of Zakarpattia is a hot topic lately. As local mass media report, most communities are against it, and some local environmental scientists emphasize that such power plants are hazardous. Because of this, as the IMI regional representative observes, most publications in local mass media have negative statements about building mini hydropower plants on mountain rivers. At the same time, Facebook users recently were actively discussing the material on this topic that was probably a covert advertisement, produced by the channel “M-studio”. In their story, hydropower plants are presented  as something positive. and with no downsides. IMI media lawyer Maksym Ratushnyi, commenting on this case, said that “speaking about threat to murder or cause physical harm is not possible based on the facts described”. Still, if the journalist feels that he is threatened by the comments, he can contact police for help to protect himself, and also ask for the opinion of police officials about whether such a comment constitutes crime, the lawyer added.