The car of Volodymyr Yehorov, the chief editor of Ukraine’s TVi television channel, was set on fire in the early morning hours of May 12, in an incident the journalist believes is connected to his work.
No people were hurt and the fire was quickly extinguished. The Kyiv police have started a criminal investigation.
According to Yehorov, his Citroen C4 Picasso car was set on fire in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district at around 4:30 a.m.
“The neighbors talk about (hearing) a pop,” the journalist wrote on Facebook. “It’s clearly arson.”
Yehorov says that the firefighters and the police quickly arrived at the scene of the incident and extinguished the blaze.
He said that the car was new, with a diesel engine, and that the ignition source was under the front left side of the vehicle. The police reported that the front part of the car was damaged.
The police are investigating the fire as a case of one or several arsonists intentionally destroying or damaging property. If caught, the arsonists could face up to ten years in prison.
Although Yehorov says he told the police he was a journalist, the officers did not qualify the case as “intentional destruction or damage to the property of a journalist.”
However, Yehorov believes that the incident is connected to his professional activity.
“I would like to believe that there is no ill intent in giving the case this qualification,” he wrote on Facebook.
The journalist also said that he had spoken with representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe after the alleged arson.
“They are concerned about the situation in Ukraine and the frequent arson attacks on journalists’ cars,” Yehorov wrote.
Founded in 2008, TVi was a national channel for years. After a series of ownership and tax scandals in the media, the channel stopped broadcasting in 2015 due to financial difficulties. Since then, TVi has worked irregularly.
According to the channel’s Facebook page, TVi is broadcast to people with satellite dishes. It also has a news website that mostly focuses on lifestyle, entertainment, and political coverage.
