Iryna Saliy, founder and chief editor of Sudovyi Reporter, received a WhatsApp message with a request to take certain information down from the news website for a monetary reward. Iryna reported this in a Facebook post and shared screenshots of the conversation.
In a comment to Institute of Mass Information journalist Valentyna Troyan, Iryna Saliy said that the exchange concerned the 21 September article “Case on 7 million confiscation from a Kyiv judge couple to be tried in camera”.
Saliy later learned that she had been contacted by the Communication Solutions LLC founder, Lesya Butsenko.
“Her phone number, which she used to text me, is easily found in Interfax announcements: Lesya Butsenko is the contact for reporter accreditation. And a person with this name was once an assistant to multiple MPs of the 5th and 6th convocations – from the Socialist Party and the Party of Regions. So I was being contacted by a PR specialist,” Iryna said.
The journalist added that she did not continue the conversation beyond what is pictured in the screenshots.
“As I understand it, she is a PR person and was hired to remove an article from my website for money. Obviously, I cannot tell who the customer is. I can only assume. It is quite likely that it’s the judges featured in the article. Especially since they have already filed a motion with the High Council of Justice over my article ‘Case on 7 million confiscation from a Kyiv judge couple to be tried in camera’, claiming that I was interfering in their work,” Saliy told IMI.
Saliy believes that the removal of the article could have been ordered by the judges’ friends or their adversaries who want to discredit them.
“For example, MP Dubinskyi, who is being tried for high treason. Judge Anokhin, who is featured in the article, is a judge in that case. Dubinskyi has repeatedly challenged Judge Anokhin over the apartment story. And he has filed complaints with the Supreme Court of Justice against Judges Anokhin and Budzan. I highlighted this very aspect in my article: how Dubinskyi is trying to exploit the judges’ apartment case in his own interests,” the journalist explained.
She added that this was the second attempt to take down the article.
“The previous one was in September: the next morning after the article was released. Back then, they were reluctant to tell me which article they meant. Well, I explained that I don’t delete articles, and that was the end of it,” Iryna Saliy added.