Lutsk journalists claim chief judge of city district court blackmails them

Journalists of The Volyn TV and Radio company «Avers» claim that the chief judge of Lutsk city district court Mykhailo Kviatkovskyi is blackmailing them. The man has shown the journalists a disc with records of conversations overt the phone where the channel’s employees are allegedly some of the speakers. The TV and Radio Company «Avers» addressed the High Council of Justice with a complaint against the actions of Mykhailo Kviatkoivskyi. The  story  of the TV channel «Avers» was about the TV program released in March of 2017 «Reverse – the sewing business», where, using several criminal cases as an example, it was shown how easy it is to send a person to prison and how in other cases criminals go unpunished. In the program, some investigators, prosecutors, and judges were mentioned. According to the journalists, the person who was angered the most by this program was the head of Lutsk city district court, Mykhailo Kviatkovskyi. Mykhailo Kviatkovskyi in his comment for IMI said that he also filed a complaint to the High Council of Justice. According to him, in the program «Reverse – the sewing factory» not everything was true. According to the judge, he met the journalists of «Avers» and explained what was not true in their program. In the story broadcast on July 14, it was shown that Mykhailo Kviatkovskyi allegedly has recorded phone conversations of the journalists of «Avers». The judge claims that he received these records in a lawful manner, as a part of several investigations. The journalists claim that the voices are not recognizable, and in their second video response - that the record was edited. The record allegedly shows that the journalists were paid for negative coverage of some officials. The judge in his comment for IMI confirmed that he has the record, which has not been published yet.