Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that defends freedom of information, wrote to Ukraine’s police, security and judicial officials on Oct. 8, urging them to put a stop to the harassment of its local representative in connection with her work in defense of freedom of speech and information.
“We urge you to take whatever measures are necessary to protect Oksana
Romaniuk’s privacy and to bring those responsible for harassing her to
justice,” the organization wrote in its letter.
Romaniuk, the Ukrainian representative of the Paris-based group and
executive director of Kyiv-based media watchdog non-governmental organization
Institute of Mass Information, filed a criminal report with police on Oct. 8 to
investigate acts of intimidation and violations of her right to privacy by
unknown persons who hacked into her computer, stole personal information and
published it online.
One of the websites that published the contents of Romaniuk’s private
emails and work seems to have been created solely to publicize the information,
while the other is a copycat of famous independent online newspaper Ukrainska
Pravda, known for its investigative stories that are often critical of the
government. Media experts here believe the site, called Ukrainska Kryvda
(Ukrainian Lies), a play on the reputable Ukrainska Pravda news website, is
behind the hacking and a black PR campaign against Romaniuk.
“I received personal threats from site Ukrainska Kryvda, which threatened
to disclose all my private correspondence. I regard this as pressure on me and
my family. But I think this is a large-scale campaign against civil society
activists and independent journalists,” Romaniuk said.
Romaniuk said that she appealed to international organizations and embassies
over the matter, as well as President Viktor Yanukovych’s press secretary Darka
Chepak, whom she asked to convene a task force.
Freedom House, a U.S.-based independent watchdog organization, called the
hacking a “vilification campaign” and asked Ukraine’s authorities to
investigate the matter.
“Someone is seeking to discredit Oksana Romaniuk, a respected human rights
defender, and the leading media freedom organization IMI, in targeted personal
attacks,” said Susan Corke, director for Eurasia programs at Freedom House.
Reporters Without Borders added that the actions of Ukrainska Kryvda
constitute an unacceptable violation of Romaniuk’s right to privacy and regards
them as a very clear attempt to take revenge against IMI’s work in Ukraine.
No one at Ukrainska Kryvda could be reached for comment by press time.
The targeting of Romaniuk is merely the latest campaign meant to discredit
journalists and the media in Ukraine.
Recently an alleged large-scale campaign using considerable resources was
hatched to discredit Ukrainska Pravda. On Sept. 4, a fake namesake paper had
been printed and distributed in several cities with an identical website
design. Around the same time, Ukrainska Kryvda appeared. Before that, in June,
a website called Ukrainska Nepravda (Ukrainian Untruth), was also launched.
The Kyiv Post in September discovered advertisements posted by an online
recruiting agency called MyWork soliciting journalists to fill a number of
vacancies at the fake Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. The postings included
advertisements for editors and journalists, guards and other staff. The author
of the announcement was found to be “Ukrainska Pravda news agency,” which was
registered earlier this year using the real Pravda’s brand.
Media experts have voiced concerns over the series of alleged smear
campaigns.
Romaniuk on Sept. 13 told the Kyiv Post that there is “a definite aim to
discredit the media that are impossible to buy or take under control” and that
she believes those in power are behind the campaigns.
Kyiv Post editor
Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected].
