Illegal bugging at Bihus.Info: Police open four cases
The police have registered four cases of privacy violation due to the covert filming and bugging of employees of the investigative journalism project Bihus.info.
Source: Ivan Vyhivskyi, Head of the National Police, at a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform media centre on 22 January
Quote: "One case is with the Security Service. The second case… Well, not one but four representatives of Bihus.Info have come to us, so we have registered four cases under Article 182 [of the Criminal Code] – violation of privacy. In fact, they were registered at the weekend, [on] Friday and Saturday. A number of investigative actions are planned.
Bihus has publicised the fact that the Security Service has already carried out certain investigative actions. We will also coordinate our actions and move forward."
Details: Vyhivskyi added that four individuals have been identified as having been directly involved in the case of the obstruction of the work of journalist Yurii Nikolov. Investigative actions are currently underway, and phones are being examined.
Previously: The Security Service opened a case regarding the Bihus.Info situation under Article 359 (illegal acquisition, sale or use of special technical devices for obtaining information).
Background:
- On 16 January, a video was leaked online showing employees of the Bihus.Info investigative project apparently using drugs. The project's head, Denys Bihus, recorded a video message giving explanations and stated that everyone who works with Bihus.Info would take drug tests.
- Later, Bihus said that after talking to the people involved in the video, it transpired that members of the Bihus.Info editorial team had been under surveillance for about a year, and that fragments of intercepted conversations had been edited together from several episodes that took place months apart.
- The Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech promised to send a request to the Security Service of Ukraine to find out who was involved in the surveillance of Bihus.Info journalists.
- The Security Service of Ukraine has reported that it is investigating the circumstances of the illegal bugging and filming of Bihus.Info staff.
- Bihus.info journalists conducted an investigation and found out how the surveillance of the team in the resort complex was organised. According to their data, about 30 people were involved in the operation.
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