Recent acts of intimidation against media representatives specializing in corruption cases are undermining the efforts of President Volodymyr Zelensky's government to implement the increased transparency reforms expected by the European Union. The home of journalist Yurii Nikolov, known for his investigations into the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, was visited by men dressed in military fatigues who insulted and threatened him on January 14. Two days later, the investigative media website Bihus.Info was targeted when a compromising video, intended to discredit its journalists, was circulated on an anonymous Telegram channel.

Ukrainian civil society immediately took up these cases, calling on the country's government to strongly condemn the attacks on the journalists. "We urge the law enforcement agencies to take into account the seriousness of the situation and quickly identify those involved in organizing these persecutions and attacks on journalists, and to hold them to account," said Mediarukh, an association of leading Ukrainian media.

On Wednesday, the SBU opened a criminal investigation into the wiretapping and hidden video recording of the Bihus.Info site, assuring that "the transparent and unhindered work of independent and professional media is an important condition for the development of Ukraine as a democratic state." That evening, at the end of a day devoted to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelensky stated that "any pressure on journalists [was] unacceptable."

This double affair, which triggered a major scandal in the country, began on Sunday when men dressed as soldiers showed up at Nikolov's home. The author of an investigation that caused an upheaval in the Ministry of Defense, was not at home when the men tried to break in. It was his elderly mother who called to tell him that they were trying to open the door while shouting his name. On his return, the journalist found papers inscribed with the words "provocateur" and "Kremlin's whore."

Two days later, a video posted on an anonymous Telegram channel showed employees of Bihus.Info taking drugs in a hotel complex on the outskirts of Kyiv on New Year's Eve. Snippets of telephone conversations were also broadcast. According to the editor-in-chief of the website specializing in corruption, this is proof that the company's employees had been bugged for at least a year. "This is systematic, long-term surveillance and harassment aimed at discrediting the team's work," said Maksym Opanasenko in an interview with the media nv.ua.

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