The investigative journalism agency Chetverta Vlada says their journalist Myroslava Prymak has been facing pressure by Rivne-based lawyer Oleksandr Lutsiuk, who was featured in their investigation, Chetverta Vlada reported on 16 February.
The incident occurred as the team was working on an article about a fish farming company that had recently been assigned critical enterprise status and was thus allowed to exempt ten employees and two co-owners (including Stanislav Kostiychenko and Oleksandr Lutsiuk, athletes, businessmen, and lawyers prominent in the city) from the draft.
The journalist contacted Oleksandr Lutsiuk, who is a co-owner of the company, for a comment. At first, he refused to answer her questions, but later called Myroslava Prymak back himself.
During the conversation, which lasted more than 10 minutes, Lutsiuk started asking the journalist personal questions, claiming to have read online that her husband was a “drug addict with a criminal record,” and adding that “the public would be interested” to hear about it.
“I wanted to ask you a clarifying question. Well, to get a better understanding of who you are, who I am talking to. Tell me, please, is it true that your husband and the father of your child, ‘Andriy,’ had a drug addiction and was convicted for drugs?” was how Oleksandr Lutsiuk opened the conversation, the news outlet writes.
Journalist Myroslava Prymak replied that she knew nothing about it and entered into a discussion, later calling Lutsiuk’s allegations a lie and gossip.
“You are now putting pressure on a journalist. That’s how I see it. Because you came up with a lie and are trying to tarnish my reputation with this lie,” Myroslava Prymak said during the conversation with the lawyer.
The team views the phone call as pressure on a journalist by the lawyer with the aim of preventing the investigation into his dubious draft exemption from being released.
Oleksandr Lutsiuk, 31, is lawyer who, the journalists say, has ties to an influential local business and political group that has been the subject of many investigations by Chetverta Vlada.
The team assumes that the false claims made by the lawyer may later form the basis of a new smear campaign against Chetverta Vlada.
The agency has repeatedly faced mudslinging campaigns. For instance, following the release of several high-profile reports about the Rivne City Council press service, anonymous allegations that the team had ties to the Russian church and sexist attacks on Chetverta Vlada’s female journalists appeared online. Later, unknown individuals organised a likely staged rally targeting the agency’s chief editors near the Rivne City Court.
