Poltava journalist says his wife was threatened because of his work

The editor of Poltava newspaper “Events and Comments” Alexander Lutsenko said there have been threats of physical harm to his wife and family because of his professional journalistic activity, reports “Kremenchuhskyy Telegraph”.

According to Lutsenko, on October 14, his wife got a call from an unknown number in which a man on the other end of the line threatened to seriously harm her.

"A gruff male voice called her by name, said her full residential address and threatened to stab her,” he said.

Lutsenko believes the threats are happening because of his profession,

“Right now we are holding a series of investigations, related to photos and false information spread by the opposition candidate against the deputies of Ukraine," he said.

Lutsenko also said that his wife wrote a statement to the police, but hadn’t received a response in the two days since.

“I had to take my wife and two young children to another city and hide them," he said.

In addition, he said, for the last three weeks unknown hackers had tried to block the work of his editorial team by sending dozens of emails infected with computer viruses.

"The government and parliamentary candidates from the authorities do not like the truth that our journalists publish in the newspaper,” he said.