After compromising images and audio recordings of Bihus.info journalists were posted on social media, the site's editor-in-chief vowed that his teams would investigate to find those responsible. Three weeks later, in a lengthy video investigation published on Monday, February 5, Denys Bihus accused the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) of being behind the surveillance operation on his teams, who were in a hotel complex on the outskirts of Kyiv on December 27, 2023, for a business meeting, followed by a party.
A video recorded by hidden cameras showing Bihus.info employees taking drugs had been broadcast on an anonymous Telegram channel before spreading across social media. According to Bihus, the operation was aimed at discrediting the work of his journalists, who specialize in corruption cases.
On Tuesday, the day after the Bihus.info investigation was published, the head of the SBU issued a statement condemning the "unacceptable" actions of his department and saying they had already led to "a number of personnel decisions." The security service had not waited for the news site's revelations before reacting. As early as December 31, the head of the SBU's Department for the Protection of the National State, accused of having mobilized some 30 agents on the site of the hotel complex to conceal cameras in several rooms, was dismissed from his post by Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the SBU.
On Monday, a few hours after the Bihus.info investigation was broadcast, the SBU communications department justified the journalists' surveillance by the fact that, according to their information, some of the site's employees were on a client list of drug traffickers. "My position is clear: The actions of employees can't erase all the SBU's positive results during the war and cast a shadow over the service's representatives," insisted Maliouk.
In light of the Bihus.info revelations, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office announced on Tuesday that the investigation opened on January 17 into "illegal wiretapping and video capturing" would no longer be carried out by the SBU, but by another department. "Given that law enforcement officers are probably involved in the commission of the criminal offense in question, the preliminary investigation within the framework of criminal proceedings falls within the exclusive competence of the State Investigation Bureau [SBI]," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
The media editor claims that the security department failed to answer his questions about whether any court orders had required the installation of the hidden equipment in the rooms. The journalists' investigation is based on images from the resort's video surveillance cameras from the days before and after their presence on the premises. In the name of a works council on the site, dozens of men and a few women thus rented several hotel rooms to install small cameras, hidden in coat racks or in fake fire alarms. Journalists were able to identify faces on the site's video surveillance and trace the security service's trail via social media.
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