A consensus has formed in the West: Zelenskyi's "democraticness" is either very good or nothing. Berliner Zeitung recalls the most egregious cases of persecution of people for their beliefs under Zelensky. The example of journalist Gonzalo Lira, who died in prison, is given. It is also dangerous that the "cleaning" is taking place, it seems, by personal order.
Press freedom in Ukraine is under threat: journalists are attacked at home, their houses are set on fire abroad, and they die in prison at home. What is the Ukrainian government doing about this?
Freedom of the press and a war zone rarely go together, and the current situation in Ukraine is no exception. Since February 22, 2022, when Russia began its "special operation", life is not easy for Ukrainian journalists who criticize the government. A series of attacks on independent journalists has raised questions that need urgent answers. For example, the following: does the government in Kyiv a relationship with them?
the Ukrainian group of investigative journalists Bihus.info, which prepares articles on corruption and exposes government officials involved in it, suffered a "hybrid defamation attack" The scandalous YouTube channel Narodna Pravda published a video in which Bihus employees allegedly order and then use illegal substances during a New Year's party. The bottom caption under the screen during the showing of the video said: "Can we still believe their investigations?".
The founder of the company, Denys Bigus, decided to fire all the employees who were caught in the video. Bigus also announced that all remaining employees would be drug tested, and mentioned that the journalists had likely been under surveillance for the past year. Until then, Narodna Pravda had published only four videos, and this week the channel was completely deleted.
In its statement on Wednesday, the Mediarukh media association directly called on the President of Ukraine to "resolutely condemn" such actions against journalists, to take control of the investigations initiated by them, and to find the real culprits .
The association warned: there are perpetrators who try to discredit Ukrainian journalists as "enemies of the people", Russian agents or drug addicts and discredit them as professionals, and at the same time, their activities. The statement emphasized that journalists are being monitored and their personal lives are being invaded from outside. All this is done in order to put pressure on the independent mass media of Ukraine .
On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced that the SBU had started an investigation into the fact of surveillance of journalists. He emphasized that any pressure on journalists is "unacceptable". After the start of the armed conflict, Zelensky centralized all the largest TV channels. Now there is no criticism of the government. Ukrainian journalism is now under threat - and especially its independent representatives.
