Rubryka says Korespondent.net used their journalist's name for fake news. Media outlet denies

Online news outlet Rubryka claims that Korespondent.net used the name of their environment columnist Viktoria Hubareva for a fake news story that was then shared by pro-Russian Telegram channels. Korespondent.net denies the allegations.

Rubryka reports that Viktoria Hubareva’s profile with a fake news story appeared on Korespondent.net in the “Readers’ Blogs” section.

Rubryka's screenshot of the fake Viktoria Hubareva blogpost

The news released on Korespondent.net was reviewed by the StopFake fact-checker Oksana Poluliakh.

The news story in question alleges that “Ukraine's government is preparing for a scenario in which several northern and southern regions may be given to the Russians” and that the Ukrainian government plans to “sabotage” the land in some southern and northern regions “so that the enemy cannot develop agriculture there and profit off it to fund further aggression against us.”

Oksana Poluliakh said that such reports first appeared in pro-Russian Telegram channels on May 15.

“Our team suspected immediately that this text was not written by Viktoria but was fabricated”, the fact-checker remarked.

Journalist Viktoria Hubareva says that she never had a "Readers' Blog" profile on Korespondent.net, never posted columns there, created news for the website, or offered any texts to the team.

“When Oksana showed me the blogpost, I tried to contact the Korespondent.net team at once; however, the phone number listed on their website was 'not in service.' The fact that such 'news' appears on this portal clearly demonstrates the editorial office’s dedication to spreading false information which is most likely Russian propaganda, and their disregard for all rules of ethics and journalistic ethics standards. The website Korespondent.net has always had a bad reputation and I was indifferent to it. Now instead of indifference I feel disgust,” said Viktoria Hubareva.

Viktoria advised readers to only search for information in trusted sources and to be critical of news shared on social media and on websites with a “dubious” reputation.

“I would like to note that the Russians regularly publish fake documents, but to create a fake blog and even impersonate a real (not fictional) journalist – this is something we encounter extremely rarely,” said StopFake fact-checker Oksana Poluliakh.

In a comment to Detector Media, Korespondent.net chief editor Danylo Kiryakov said that the reports are false.

“Firstly, the 'Readers’ Blogs' section is a free journalism platform and is not moderated by the editors. Users upload their posts to the website on their own. The team does not share the bloggers’ views and is not responsible for the accuracy of the facts they report. This is written in red letters in each article. The only option for an editorial staff member to intervene is to take an article down if it contains signs of a violation of Ukraine's law,” said Kiryakov.

According to Korespondent.net chief editor, the blog by journalist Viktoria Hubareva was posted from an old account which had been preemptively edited.

“The information in question was posted from an old profile registered back in 2019, with the user data edited. Only the account owner can do this – the editorial team has no access to bloggers’ accounts. Because of this, this information never appeared on either the website's home page or the main blog page – it could be found either via the direct link or by deliberate search. The information was deleted immediately after we received a complaint. At the time of takedown, the number of views on the article was two,” said Kiryakov.

The page on which the article was posted is no longer available for viewing.

Korespondent.net screenshot by Detector Media

Danilo Kiryakov also denied Rubryka's claims that the Korespondent.net team had been impossible to contact. According to him, the letters arrived in the editors’ inbox during non-working hours and after Rubryka reported on it on their website.

In a comment to an Institute of Mass Information the representative, Viktoria Hubareva said that she had consulted with media lawyer Oksana Maksymeniuk regarding this situation. Maksymeniuk said that the media outlet should publish a retraction even if the “news” was in the “Readers’ Blog” section.

The Institute of Mass Information has reached out to Korespondent.net for a comment.