Journalists of “Lymanska Storona” report pressure

The journalist of the media outlet “Lymanska Storona” (town of Lyman, Donetska oblast) Roman Punin reports systemic pressure and dissemination of false information about him and his colleague Violeta Tsurkan on one of the local websites. He told about this to the IMI representative in Donetska oblast.

According to him, a website lyman.info was recently launched, which from time to time publishes articles accusing journalists of separatism. This pressure comes from the town authorities and its supporters, Punin and other journalists of the media outlet believe. Punin thinks this campaign against them began after the publications about town mayor Petro Tsymidan and his people.

In the article on “Lyman.info” as of June 20, 2017, titled “Investigation for the third anniversary of liberation of Lyman. Why do separatists still work in Lyman media outlets?”, its author Halyna Shevchenko said that Punin was promoting separatist ideas. She included screen copies of the articles from the newspaper “Lymanska Storona”, signed with names of Punin and Tsurkan. At the same time, Roman Punin explained to the IMI representative that the activities of the newspaper “Lymanska Storona” and their articles were checked by police and the Security Service of Ukraine but nothing criminal was found. According to Punin, this article from “Lyman.info” Petro Petrovych Tsimidan, the son of Lyman mayor, himself shared on Facebook in groups of Donetska oblast. People in comments under his posts demanded “to hang” negligent journalists.

The website lyman.info has no address of its editorial office or any other similar information. Based on the date of the first publication on the website, it was created in the end of May; the same date is on the first post in the website’s group on Facebook, the IMI representative points out.

AS the editorial office of “Lymanska Storona” reports, the attack n the journalists began ater they conducted several investigations about incomes of the town mayor and uncovering the schemes of embezzling public funds in Lyman. In particular, these are the materials as of December 2, 2016, “Who is ‘friends’ with whom in Lyman for public money, or, how ‘to make half a million’” and as of June 14, 2017, “Court arrested property of Lyman mayor”.