Businessman's bodyguards threaten Ukrainian journalist Yaroslav Bondarenko
Journalist Yaroslav Bondarenko was approached by a group of five men at an airport in Dnipro early on Sunday afternoon, according to Ukrainska Pravda reporter Mykhailo Tkach. The men forced Bondarenko to unlock his phone at knifepoint and erased months' worth of photos and videos from it.
Musaeva told CPJ that Ukrainska Pravda was able to confirm that the men were bodyguards accompanying Alexander Petrovsky, an important local businessman. She added that police officers nearby observed the attack, but did not intervene or detain the men.
The Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor's office, which has jurisdiction over Dnipro, and the Ukrainian National Police announced that criminal investigations had been opened into the suspected obstruction of journalists' professional activities and violence against journalists.
Bondarenko was filming near the VIP terminal of the airport, where he planned to cover the arrival of guests at Petrovsky's birthday party, when three armed bodyguards working for Petrovsky confiscated his phone, according to Musaeva and Tkach's video. Two other men then arrived on the scene, and one pulled out a knife and threatened to stab Bondarenko if he did not provide his password for unlocking his phone.
Tkach told local outlet AP News that Bondarenko deleted not only his videos and photos from that day, but six months' worth of videos and photos after he complied. One of the other men twisted the arms of Ukrainska Pravda driver Sergiy Ishenko, according to reports, which said that he did not suffer any significant injuries.
Irina Venediktova commented on Facebook that the case was "under her control" and that "the reaction will be appropriate." Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov called for state leaders not to allow the case “to be silenced,” and promised to give Ukrainska Pravda all possible information from nearby surveillance cameras.
On February 16, Ukraine Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrskyy announced that “all persons involved in the attack had already been identified and will be held accountable in accordance with the law.”
Tkach is the head of the Department of Investigative Journalism at Ukrainian Pravda, whose team is known for its investigations into Ukrainian elites.
*This article contains information sourced from CPJ.
