Lutsk-based media professional Yuriy Rychuk, owner of the media group Vechirniy Lutsk, has shared a text message containing threats to him and his family in a Facebook post and discussed it with Maia Holub, the Institute of Mass Information’s regional representative in Volyn oblast.
The text from an unknown person, sent via a messaging app, asked whether the journalist’s conscience allowed him to sleep at night. The message also included the phrase “the scribbles you wrote for money will come back to bite you or your family.”
In comments to IMI’s representative, Yuriy Rychuk remarked that the message had arrived via Viber on Saturday, 17 October, signed “Slava”. The sender’s phone number comes up in GetContact as “Stanislav Pozniakevych”, but when the journalist dialled it, he discovered that the number was not in service.
READ MORE:
Yuriy Rychuk remarked that he had not yet contacted the police and did not think it was necessary at present. He had no assumptions about who sent the message or why.
“Honestly, I don’t even have any theories. My only emotion here is surprise. In my reporting work over recent years, I can’t recall a single critical piece that could have caused its ‘subject’ enough discomfort to prompt such threats. Nor can I recall any subjects of my reporting who would have stooped to such primitive ‘threats.’ Or perhaps I think too highly of people…” Yuriy Rychuk commented.
He did, however, add ironically:
“Full moon is soon, which folk belief says prompts mentally unstable people to behave inappropriately. But the full moon is still a week away. And I have no other assumptions,” he added.
Volodymyr Zelenchuk, a lawyer with the Institute of Mass Information, remarked in comments that threats, as a criminally punishable act, must, among other things, be real and specific.
“A threat being real means that it may, with a significant degree of probability, be carried out. ‘Specific’ means that the person is threatened with real, objective harm. A message like this, unfortunately, does not meet these criteria and cannot, on its own, be classified under Article 345-1 (threats or violence against a journalist),” he commented.
At the same time, the IMI lawyer remarked, if such messages are part of a campaign aminig to pressure or intimidate a journalist and may be linked to specific piece of reporting and the people opposing it, one can speak of signs of unlawful influence on a journalist with the purpose of obstructing the performance of their professional duties, or of persecution of a journalist over his lawful reporting, which is a punishable offence under Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenchuk remarked that it is right to report such incidents, and that, if this happened consistently and was prompted by some material, one could try to gather evidence of specific individuals’ involvement independently and contact law enforcement with that information.
In October 2026, the Rivne-based outlet Chetverta Vlada reported that their chief editor Volodymyr Torbich had received death threats following the release of a news piece on criminal law proceedings involving the children of Liana Dynovska, director of the Rivne Social Services Centre.
