Ukraine: IPI sends letter following intimidation of investigative journalist

On January 14, unknown men harassed Ukrainian investigative journalist Yuri Nikolov at his home in Kyiv, in an apparent attempt to intimidate him into discontinuing his work. Five months later, the masterminds behind this operation remain unknown. While police has opened an investigation into the case, Nikolov has recently reported that investigators are preparing to disconnect the incident from his journalistic activities, and instead investigate the facts as hooliganism.

This decision would not only be a step backwards in the process of identifying those responsible for the events of January, but would also deal a serious blow at efforts to eradicate the practice of intimidation of investigative journalists in Ukraine.

For this reason, IPI today sent a letter to police authorities in Ukraine, demanding a full and transparent investigation of the harassment of Yuri Nikolov. The letter is also addressed to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, who at the time of the events was accused by various actors in Ukraine as having been behind them.

The full text of the letter can be found below.

 

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International Press Institute (IPI)

To: Dmytro Shumeyko, head of the Main Police Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv
CC: Maksim Tsutskuridze, head of the Main Investigations Directorate of the National Police
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine

Dear Mr. Shumeyko,

On behalf of the International Press Institute, I am writing to you to express our concerns that the investigation into the intimidation attempt made against investigative journalist, Yuri Nikolov, is expected to be downgraded from “obstruction of legal journalistic activities” to “hooliganism”. Such a move would seriously hamper efforts to achieve justice and efforts to end intimidation of journalists for their work.

Five months ago today, unknown men arrived at Nikolov’s home in Kyiv in what appeared to be a clear attempt to intimidate him from continuing his work. The men loudly demanded he open the door and “speak with them” all while threatening to use violence. They also attempted to discredit him by claiming he should serve in the army instead of working as a journalist.

Immediately following the events in January, IPI published a statement demanding an end to the practice of intimidating investigative journalists in Ukraine.

The only publicly available video of the incident was posted immediately after the event on the Russian-language Telegram channel Kartochniy Ofis (“Office of Cards”), which some public figures in Ukraine have linked to the office of President Zelensky, and particularly to its head Andriy Yermak. At the time, the National Police immediately opened an investigation into the incident, eventually detaining those immediately involved, without, however, identifying the organizers.

Maksim Tsutskuridze, the head of the investigative directorate of Ukraine’s national police force, later told online media outlet Censor.net that the organizer of the attack had been identified, and that police were attempting to convince this person to reveal its mastermind. Since February, Ukraine’s police force have, however, made no further statements on the investigation.

In light of this, Mr. Nikolov’s recent statements, in which he claims that Ukraine’s police force is “simply not looking for” the mastermind of the operation, although it “has the information [needed] to find them”, are especially worrying. Diverting this investigation from “obstruction of legal journalistic activities” (art. 171 of Ukraine’s criminal code) to “hooliganism” (art. 296 of Ukraine’s criminal code), which according to Mr. Nikolov is the next step planned by the police, would be an outrageous decision depriving a major Ukrainian investigative journalist of justice and security. It would also conceal the truth behind the events of January from the public.

We ask that you heed to our appeal to not let this decision be made. Instead, the full and in-depth investigation which was conducted into the attack on a prominent Ukrainian investigative journalist must be finalized, and its results made public, irrespective of who the organisers may be. We also ask to be informed on the progress of this investigation.

Kind regards,

 

Frane Maroević
Executive Director