The SBU is investigating the illegal wiretapping of Bihus.Info employees

The Security Service of Ukraine reported that it is investigating the illegal wiretapping of employees of the Bihus.Info project.

Criminal proceedings have been opened under Art. 359 of the Criminal Code (illegal acquisition, sale or use of special technical means of obtaining information). It provides up to 10 years of imprisonment.

"Transparent and unimpeded work of independent and professional mass media is an important condition for the development of Ukraine as a democratic state. Such facts of surveillance should be given a legal assessment, regardless of whether or not the facts of a possible violation of the law related to the circulation of narcotic substances were made public in the materials of the covert filming," the SBU said.

• On January 16, the "Narodna Pravda" media outlet published a video with a part of the team of Bihus.Info investigators project, in which they probably used marijuana, MDMA and amphetamine at a corporate party. The video also contains recordings of conversations and phone calls of these employees.
• The founder of the project, Denys Bihus, said that it werenʼt journalists who used drugs in the video. These were operators. He does not justify their behavior, so they will be fired. However, Bihus paid attention to the secret taping.
• In a comment to Babel, Bihus.info Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maksym Opanasenko said that the editorial office will contact the law enforcement officers about the surveillance and at the same time will independently try to find out who or what law enforcement agency is behind it. He said the video compiles conversations over several months, and in some cases almost a year. That is, employees were listened to for quite a long time. The editors assume that this may be an attempt at pressure.