The Kyiv Independent CEO Daryna Shevchenko says there has been an incident near her house which she considers to be harassment, according to a Facebook post by the news outlet’s chief editor Olha Rudenko.
Rudenko said that an unknown man had come to the house where Daryna Shevchenko lives on 30 September to collect information about her. He interviewed her neighbors, showed them her photo, took pictures of the entrance door and the hallway door on her floor.
“This guy was escorted to the building by employees of the local housing office. They say that he showed them a badge, but do not say what kind of badge. They are obviously scared. The police will be questionioning them now. Daryna has filed a statement about stalking,” Olha Rudenko said.
She added that the news outlet’s CEO had no personal conflicts or open proceedings that this incident may relate to.
“Our only theory is that it has to do with her work as the CEO of The Kyiv Independent and our journalism. Such gathering of information could have been done as part of some pre-trial investigation or simply as a means of pressure,” explained Olha Rudenko.
She added that she did not want to throw any baseless accusations around.
“But there are not many kinds of badges that can scare people the way these housing office employees were scared,” Rudenko wrote.
The Kyiv Independent chief editor posted a screenshot from CCTV camera footage featuring the man who was collecting information about Daryna Shevchenko, and asked to help identify him.
The Institute of Mass Information has reached out to Daryna Shevchenko for comment.