Newspaper from Donetsk region "Pro Gorod" (“About the City”) claims pressure and harassment against its employees

The newspaper “Pro Gorod” (city of Torez, Donetska oblast) claims that its employees are being pressured and harassed, and also reports about the attack against the chief editor of the newspaper, Igor Abizov. The editorial office employees think these attacks are related to their professional activities. The newspaper published a declaration about this on its website.

The editorial office staff believes the harassment is due to series of publications about an enterprise providing utility services, private enterprise “Donbass industrial development”. These articles describe how the enterprise won tenders using corrupt city council officials, how they received condominiums as clients after the one-option tender, about bad quality of services, etc.

The harassment was in the form of buying out all copies of newspapers, telephone calls with demands to take materials off the web-site, cutting off the electricity cables leading to the office, calls with noise, surveillance over the office and of the editor-in-chief’s car. Also, the editorial office staff noticed that on October 4 on the web-sites stopotkat.net, uaport.net, censor.net.ua, kraina.nameh.ua slanderous articles were published about the newspaper editor-in-chief Igor Abizov, named «Igor Abizov, editor of the newspaper «Pro Gorod», became the main pervert of the city of Torez».

In addition, the people who kept the office under surveillance, on October 25 at 22:30 attacked Abizov and tried to bully him into saying he was a pedophile while filming this on a camera.

The editor-in-chief filed complaints with the local police, yet the police seem to ignore them or investigate some episodes of the harassment as a petty crime like hooliganism.

Taking into account the fact that the criminals’ behavior becomes more and more threatening, the editorial office staff fears for their safety, so they addressed the oblast and central police authorities with their complaints.