KYIV, Ukraine: A senior official with Ukraine’s intelligence agency has been fired after revelations that investigative journalists had been wiretapped, a source at the agency told AFP on Monday.
The move comes after several instances of intimidation of Ukrainian investigative journalists surfaced in January, leading Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to call on authorities to investigate the alleged infractions.
RSF listed three cases that took place or were exposed within a week.
In one, staff at Bihus.info, an outlet specialized in investigating corruption, discovered from a video that was posted on social media on January 16 that they had been subjected to surreptitious filming and eavesdropping for months.
Another case involved Odesa-based journalist Iryna Hryb, who reported on grain exports in the region and found a device in her car that could be used to listen to her phone calls or conversations with passengers and to track her movements.
The third case involved Yuriy Nikolov, an investigative reporter for the anti-corruption media outlet Nashy Hroshy.
On January 14, masked individuals tried to force their way into his Kyiv apartment while at the same time threatening him with being forcibly enlisted to fight in the Ukrainian army against the Russian invasion.
On Monday, a source within Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency told AFP that “the head of the SBU state protection department, Roman Semenchenko, was fired as a result of the surveillance of Bihus Info staff.”
The decision was taken by the head of the SBU and approved by President Volodymyr Zelensky, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier on Monday, the SBU said in a statement that it had “taken appropriate personnel decisions,” but defended the surveillance because “some Bihus Info employees were clients of drug traffickers.”
In January, Bihus Info, which has called the surveillance “shameful,” said that some of its staff had consumed “illegal substances” during New Year, after recordings surfaced online.
Numerous investigative outlets operate in Ukraine, which for years has enjoyed a far more vibrant media landscape than in Russia.
Senior Ukraine official fired over media wiretapping
https://arab.news/yfjw3
Senior Ukraine official fired over media wiretapping
- Numerous investigative outlets operate in Ukraine, which for years has enjoyed a far more vibrant media landscape than in Russia
Four killed in Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv exchange drone strikes
- Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in Kharkiv
- Synegubov said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district
KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least four people Wednesday, officials said, as the war between the neighbors dragged on for more than four years with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
The latest attacks came with a third round of three-party talks derailed by the war in the Middle East, despite pressure from Washington on both sides to agree to an elusive peace deal.
Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which lies close to the Russian border, was encircled at the beginning of Russia’s invasion four years ago.
It has been attacked almost daily since Moscow’s forces were pushed back later in 2022.
The governor of the wider region, Oleg Synegubov, said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district.
“A civilian enterprise caught fire as a result of the enemy strike,” he said, adding that three women and four men had been hospitalized.
Another Russian drone wounded 20 people in the afternoon, after hitting a civilian minibus in the southeastern city of Kherson, Ukrainian prosecutors said.
In the Russian-occupied part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed authorities said two civilians had been killed in their car by a Ukrainian drone strike on the frontline town of Vasylivka.
“The danger of repeated strikes remains,” Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.
