Few services are capable of wiretapping and oppressing journalists, all of them are controlled by Tatarov - Nikolov
Journalist Yurii Nikolov, whose apartment was broken into the day before by unidentified persons, said that the Presidential Office was organising attacks on the media because it was silent about them.
He posted this on Facebook, Censor.NET reports.
"By default, I and BIHUS.Info are not friends of any ruling elite. We are ancient dogs of democracy, barking at the troubles that threaten our way of life - free and without fear. We are part of an ecosystem that is moving away from Roissy. It is in Putin's country that corruption whistleblowers are punished, not corrupt officials. In Ukraine, it should be exactly the opposite," the statement reads.
According to Nikolov, the Office of the President "is silent about the harassment of journalists. Obviously, this suits Volodymyr Zelenskyy's associates."
"Important. Judging by the leak, the Bigus were being monitored with wiretaps for at least a year. Not many services in Ukraine are capable of this, and all of them are under Tatarov's control. And it turned out that after a year of digging, they were only able to find the childish antics of a few operators. Do you have any idea how crystal-clear Ukrainian investigators are that they can only find such rubbish?
And yes. The degenerates who pushed the President's Office on the path to war with journalists have forgotten that in democracies, journalists always win. The only option is to bury democracy in Ukraine with all its bells and whistles: the ability to establish a Diia or not, the ability to elect a president, or a payment system, to be square or triangular. I don't think this is our option," he added.
In his comments, Nikolov said: "I think that Yuri Butusov is bound to get something, how can these idiots get around him?"
The day before, a video was posted online showing Bihus.Info employees allegedly taking drugs at a New Year's corporate party. The project's founder, Denys Bihus, noted that the video showed part of the team, namely the cameramen. According to him, the journalists did not use drugs.
"The team is aware of the gravity of the situation. Of course, the wiretapping and surveillance were illegal, and the goals of those who recorded are clear. However, this is no excuse for what we saw on the video - namely, the use of illegal substances by several of our colleagues," the team said.
Later, Bigus said that the Bihus.Info team members had been under surveillance for about a year. And the New Year's corporate party was part of an operation by the security forces.
Earlier, investigative journalist Yurii Nikolov said that on 14 January, unknown men broke into his apartment and tried to intimidate him. One of the anonymous Telegram channels "Card Office" (which is associated with the Office of the President) published a post with video and photos from the scene.
The head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, said that this constituted an obstruction of journalistic activity.
The Kyiv police reported that they were conducting an investigation into the threats to journalist Nikolov.
