Bihus.Info investigation project releases new statement on employees and drugs: Team was under surveillance for about one year
Pravda Ukraine
Denys Bihus, director of the Bihus.Info investigation project, has recorded another video reacting to hidden camera footage that shows his colleagues allegedly abusing toxic substances.
Source: Bihus.Info
Details: Bihus said that after talking to the individuals featured in the video, it transpired that members of the Bihus.Info editorial team had been under surveillance for about a year, and that snatches of intercepted conversations had been edited together from several episodes that occurred months apart.
The journalist said such wiretapping and video surveillance in the room where his colleagues were relaxing was a blatant interference in their “deeply private lives”, and the people in the video who were abusing illegal substances had harmed only themselves and posed no threat to society.
Quote: “That is, we have reason to believe that members of the team were just being monitored for a long time — persistently, systematically and at great cost. I have a rough idea of how much state money was pumped into installing cameras in the hotel room the four girls were booked into.”
Details: Bihus also noted that the cameras in the rooms of an out-of-town house where Bihus.Info team members were holding an office party had been installed by representatives of an “unidentified service”.
Quote: “This doesn’t look like a spontaneous act of revenge for a specific investigation. This is systematic, long-term surveillance and harassment to discredit the team’s work. The work we have been doing for years. And I don’t see how this story can discredit our content.”
Background:
- After a video purportedly showing Bihus.Info staff members abusing toxic substances was posted online on 16 January, Denys Bihus, who runs the project, released a video message apologising and promising that all associates would take drug tests.
- Bihus said that regrettably, some of the team had violated the project’s principles and values and tough personnel changes would follow, and the project is already looking for new camera operators.
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