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Police instituted proceedings due to surveillance over TV crew of Schemes

27.02.2019, 19:23
The main investigative administration of police has instituted proceedings over the complaint filed by the journalists of the program “Schemes: corruption in details”. The journalists complained they were under surveillance by the security guards of Rinat Akhmetov, as to Radio Free Europe. On February 22th, the respective elements are filed into the Unified register of pre-trial investigations over the paragraph 3, the article 171, of the Criminal code (obstruction to journalistic activity, persecution of journalists due to their professional activity by a group of persons in intended conspiracy). “Any attempt or mean to make pressure onto the journalists, even in a disguised form, are inadmissible. In this particular case, one could envisage an obstruction to the journalist to fulfill his professional activity or persecution due to his lawful professional activity by a group of conspiring persons who acted with premeditation”, as Yaroslav Trakalo, head of the communicative department of the national police, said on his Facebook page. The investigation officers are probing into the case. IMI reported that the editorial board of the investigative program “Schemes: corruption in details” (common project of the Radio Free Europe and TV channel UA: Pershyy) claimed that during last six months, its journalist Mykhaylo Tkach and the TV crew of the program were systematically followed by the security guards of the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, as to Radio Free Europe. All cars that followed the TV crew belonged to the security company Delta-Donbas, final beneficiary of which is oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. “The editorial board made public this fact, as, firstly, we are unaware of the intentions these persons had and, secondly, we look forward that after we spoke on the pressure would be stoped and our journalists could work without obstructions, in particular, to scrutinize the relations of Rinat Akhmetov himself with Ukraine high-ranking officials”, Nataliya Sedletska, editor in chief of the investigative program. The security firm “Delta-Donbas” rejected the accusation they surveilled the TV crew of the program “Schemes”, as it is said in a reply to the letter sent by the TV channel “Ukraina”. Instead, the security firm blamed the journalists with intrusion to the privacy of Rinat Akhmetov and illegitimate fact finding. Also, the security firm claimed that during several last months, more than 200 times, some unknown person have been surveilling and filming with a disguised camera several objects controlled by the firm, it was the SCM office, a private residential property of stockholder without identifying themselves as journalists.
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