Public activists, based on analytical research, have announced the names of journalists who have repulsed the honor of the profession. The five identified are Igor Guzhva, Ruslan Kotsaba, Vsevolod Filimonenko, Irina Fedorov and Anatoliy Sharii.
Igor Guzhva is the top ranked of this group. Guzhva is a long-time editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Segodnya”, the founder of the newspaper “Vesti”, the site “Strana.ua”, radio station “Radio Vesti”. On January 31, 2018, he escaped from Ukraine to Austria, leaving a big dirty mark on Ukrainian journalism.
Guzhva’s professional experience in media began in the Donbass and was subsequently extended to Moscow. Anyone who has worked with him on his projects knows that he has never concealed his pro-Russian views. Glavred arranged strict censorship, personally editing all the materials to include “correct accents”. This happened in 2010, when the journalists of the newspaper “Segodnya” sent an anonymous letter to the site “Telekritika” where they talked about the features of the editorial policy of Guzvy: “The author can find their text has been completed for them; comments of experts or inclusion of some anonymous commentators are added without consent”.
Pro-Russian propaganda with Igor Guzhva’s leadership especially intensified with the release of the newspaper “Vesti”. Thousands of copies of the newspaper were distributed free of charge to ensure that the “right accents” reached the maximum number of readers.
During the Revolution of Dignity, the newspaper Guzvá headed used headlines such as: the Ukrainians were called to ” calm down “, and the beginning of the fighting on Hrushevsky Street was called “The Day of the Terrible”. After the annexation of the Crimea and the beginning of the war on the Donbass, Guzhva not only promoted the Kremlin’s policy, but also maintained ties with Putin’s propagandists, agreeing with his topics for coverage in his newspaper. “ ‘Vesti’ is the only pro-Russian holding with a large number (hundreds of thousands) of copies of a free newspaper …” – Vitaliy Leibin, editor of the journal “Russian Reporter”, wrote in letters to Vladislav Surkov, assistant to the Russian president. In them, he called Guzhva a valuable tool, a loyal friend, and asked for Surkov to help Guzhva avoid criminal prosecution. In this letter there was an answer from the assistant of Surkov: “Answer. Let him come. He will help.”
The Ukrainian Security Service has long been interested in the anti-Ukrainian activities of Igor Guzhva, but all attempts to take him “for the fires” were unsuccessful until last year. Though he was not ultimately caught for propagating the interests of a foreign country but rather as a result of banal greed, on June 22, 2017, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko announced that Guzhwa was arrested on suspicion of demanding money for placing compromising materials. However, taking advantage of the expiration of the precautionary measure, the media professional managed to fly to Austria and asked for a political asylum there.
On February 12 Igor Guzhva was declared in international search. The decision was made in the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv.
Ruslan Kotsaba is the second journalist identified on this list. Kotsaba is a journalist and blogger from Ivano-Frankivsk, who “became famous” for calls for a boycott of mobilization in Ukraine during the war in the east. Kotsuba first spoke during his trip to Donbass in the summer of 2014. Then he became the first Ukrainian journalist to receive “official accreditation” of the so-called LNR. In his materials and video conversations, he appears as a man who constantly denies the presence of Russian troops in the Donbass, and calls the war “civil”.
“There aren’t regular Russian troops in the Donbass. There are local guys “, – said Kotsaba in his famous video, which appeared on Youtube January 17, 2015. In this video, which gained almost half a million views, Ruslan Kotsaba publicly calls Ukrainians to refuse mobilization. “I don’t beg you to send a summons. It’s easier for me, and there is a punishment of 2 to 5 years to sit in jail “, the journalist assures.
Ruslan Kotsaba has not stopped participating in Russian TV programs, where he also actively promotes a boycott of mobilization in Ukraine and the idea of a “civil” war. According to unofficial information from sources at the The Ukrainian Security Service, about eighteen thousand dollars was found at Kotsaba’s Ivano-Frankivsk home-which was likely paid for participation in this “right” position and cooperation with Russian broadcasters. Kozba seems to argue that these funds were “passed on from his relatives in Canada”.
“Kotsaba’s actions deserve moral condemnation, he is not a journalist, but a propagandist who I frankly believe deliberately lied about events in Ukraine, actually participating in disseminating misinformation. He argued that the mercenaries, in particular, the Chechens, among the so-called “militias” were not there, although there is a bunch of evidence of this fact. He is lying when he says that mostly people from Western Ukraine are killed. This list of false statements by Kotsuba can be continued for a long time “, – said the head of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Yevhen Zakharov.
In Ruslan Kotsaba’s actions, the Ukrainian Security Service suspected a violation of two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – Part 1 of the article 111 (state betrayal) and Part 1 of art. 114-1 (interference in the activities of the Armed Forces). On February 7, 2015, the journalist was arrested. At first the Ivano-Frankivsk court sentenced Kotsuba to 3.5 years imprisonment, later the court of appeal found him innocent, and on June 1, 2017, the High Specialized Court upheld the prosecutor’s complaint, overturned the acquittal and sent the criminal proceedings for a fresh consideration.
During court hearings, Kotsaba has claimed that there is “a civil fratricidal war in the East of Ukraine, and there isn’t Russian military”.
Today, Ruslan Kotsaba has “signed up” for a television studio of “The NewsOne” channel, known for its frank pro-Russian position and anti-Ukrainian attack. Kotsaba has his own program “I think so”. His colleagues are Vyacheslav Pikhovshek, Svitlana Kryukova, Anna Herman and Nadiya Savchenko.
Vsevolod Filimonenko took third place in this list of propagandists in the world of media sector professionals. He moved to Kyiv from Luhansk and is considered a journalist of several distinctions. In the summer of 2017, Filimonenko became one of the active participants in the campaign to discredit those who are struggling with corruption in Ukraine, in particular the Center for Combating Corruption and, personally, his boss Vitaliy Shabunin. Filimonenko organized a series of provocations against Shabunin and on June 8, an occurred incident between them, during which Shabunin, interceding for his colleague Alexander Ustinov, hit Filimonenko in the face. Filimonenko also applied pepper balloon to an anti-corruptor, sprinkling the journalists who were standing next to him as well.
According to Filimonenko’s statement, the prosecutor’s office accused Shabunin of impeding journalistic activity. However, the journalistic community of the country stressed that such Vsevolod Filimonenko activity has nothing to do with journalism, and how quickly the legal body interceded for him caused great suspicion. This is stated, in particular, in the joint statement of public organizations “Detector of Media” and the Institute of Mass Information about the amendment of the article in criminal proceedings against Vitaliy Shabunin, which was announced in January 2018.
According to Deputy Mustafa Nayem, Viktor Yanukovych has more reasons to consider himself president of Ukraine than Filimonenko as a journalist. “The presence of a microphone in front of a victim does not make him a journalist, therefore, the accusation of Shabunin in hindering journalism is absurd,” wrote Mustafa Nayem on his Facebook page.
As it turned out, Vsevolod Filimonenko appeared to be a correspondent of the newspapers “Activist” and “Flash on news”, and also the co-founder of the edition “Voice of the people”. In an interview with him on the Public Radio, journalist Lyubomyr Ference emphasized that these editions are completely unknown, and the director of “Flash on news” 10 years ago was looking for an actor’s job, not a journalist’s.
In fact, Vsevolod Filimonenko, hiding behind journalism and assisting the deputy Sergei Melnychuk, systematically engaged in provocations for the sake of personal enrichment. “This is a person who specializes in provocations, he is very well prepared psychologically. Usually everything happens like this: he arrives and starts to speak, writes, and then carves different images. A person knows how to identify a counter reaction, this is not his first scandal “, – said Deputy of Ukraine Semen Semenchenko in the program” First about the main thing. Comments ».
Filominenko’s inoffensive “journalist” claims and his exclusion from the movement “HONESTLY” in 2012 was due to the extortion of money from candidates for deputies in one of the Lugansk districts. http://2012.chesno.org/events/595/.
Irina Fedoriv took fourth place in this rating. Fedoriv is a former journalist of the STB TV channel, where she appeared to be acting in defense of the Bilychansky forest. However, she settled in the village Kotsyubinske in the Kyiv region in a house built on the site of the cut-down forest, became a deputy of the Kotsiubynske settlement council, and did not announce a declaration of income for 2014-15. During her term she has had one achievement – at the expense of one of the capital’s developers, she installed a children’s playground.
On May 24, 2011, Irina Fedoriv met with then President Viktor Yanukovych, after Fedoriv received the award from the hands of Yanukovych’s crony, now a fugitive, former Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka.
She supports the joining of Kotsyubinske to Kiev. This would allow metropolitan developers to cut down the Bilychansky forest, which she has claimed to support the preservation of. She supports the transfer of the Lukianivke Investigative Isolator from Kiev to Kotsyubinsky, arguing that local relatives of prisoners will buy more gastronomy products. Opponents of Fedoriv accused Irina of lobbying for the transfer of an investigative isolator to Kotsyubinske, and she has received several apartments in one of the residential complexes of the capital. Irina Fedoriv has an accomplice in this- the settlement head Olga Matyushina, who is called “Olga Collapse”.
Activists refer to the actions of this journalist as “Irina Fedoriv’s Phenomenon “, which consists of replacing the concepts. For informkiller, she enters in the trust of journalists from leading media outlets and calls herself an “activist”. Manipulating the facts and violating the principles of journalistic ethics, Fedoriv defends the interests of developers. Being the coordinator of the movement “Honestly”, Fedoriv used the “Honestly” brand and the United States taxpayer’s grants for media attacks on political opponents.
Irina Fedoriv works as the coordinator of the movement “Honestly”. Of all the representatives of this movement, she is perhaps the most odious person, as evidenced by the numerous materials of her scandalous lobbying of interests.
She created and supported the site “Community of the Priirpinnia”, where the majority of articles are written without observing the basic principles of journalistic ethics, and where there is no representation of the opinion of those accused in these articles. Residents of Kotsyubinske know that Irina Fedoriv writes most articles of this site, and then signs these articles by the names of local activists.
Leading the trade union “Mediafront” on the STB channel, Irina Fedoriv, at one time, supported the release of the journalist STB Osman Pashayev and, according to Pashayev, suppressed STB from broadcasting informational stories on the disadvantages of Yanukovych’s regime.
In January 2018, Fedoriv became the winner of the journalist anti-premium “The Unista of the Year”. “Irina Fedoriv works for the interests of concrete businessmen. She, just like Pikhovshek, sees a concrete goal and works hard to achieve it, using direct manipulation, black PR and lies”: Valeriy Fisun, founder of the anti-premium, said in UNIAN.
Anatoly Sharij closes the shameful five. Well-known video blogger Shariyev fled Ukraine in 2012 with an illegal passport, asking for a political asylum in Lithuania. On his YouTube channel, this man “publicly ridicules Ukraine and the Ukrainian army and sings Kremlin propaganda songs”, the Lithuanian journalist Dovidas Pancravas. wrote about Sharii.
Anatoly Sharij, also known among Internet users as “Sharik”, began his journalist career in the 2000’s, published in newspapers, worked with Internet publications and channels, and positioned himself as an investigative journalist and crime fighter. In October 2009, he published the article “Public orphanage” on the Odessa orphanage ” The Pearl” where supposedly luxury cars would arrive at night and leave in the morning. In 2010, Sharij was filed in court and he was found guilty of libel about this publication.
In 2011, Sharij was charged with knowingly falsifying evidence of prosecution. Later, another case was brought against him for plotting an assassination on himself. After escaping to Lithuania, he traveled to Russia, after – to Holland. There he was arrested and sent to Lithuania. In 2013 he was announced in the All-Ukrainian search.
Journalists, the Committee for the Liberation of Political Prisoners, and the Security Service of Ukraine have all accused Anatoly Sharij of discrediting Ukraine, Ukrainianophobia and pro-Russian propaganda. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, Shariij finances the creation and distribution of videotapes that discredit Ukraine in the interests of Russian intelligence services. In September 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine announced the official warning for Sharij’s assistance with anti-Ukrainian activities.
And then there is the issue of Shariij’s cooperation with the special services of Russia, said the MP, the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko. On his Facebook page he said that as a result of special operation ” Split Key”, organized by the Center for the Study Ukrainophobes illegal activities, terrorists, and separatists, “The Peacemaker” Sharij was involved in the financing of terrorism in Ukraine.
Sharij positions himself as a media expert and a “fighter with Ukrainian propaganda,” which allegedly reveals the falsification of the media. But in practically all his videos, he criticizes the Ukrainian media, and only occasionally touches the European and Russian media (mostly oppositional). Thus their “exposure” is built on lies or outright manipulation, and often taken out of context episodes use fraudulent facts, free treatment staff, or illustrations that do not match the text. The head of the press center of Security Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region Vladislav Abdullah about “fake” Sharij said: “I wish the self-proclaimed ‘media expert’ Anatoly Sharij worked more carefully in creating false information. Maybe the preparation of lies is not your vocation? “
Recently, Anatoliy Sharij has spoken less and less about the subject of Novorossiia, the DPR, the LNR and the annexed Crimea, which he “returned home”, and is increasingly manipulating the internal problems of Ukraine. Public activists point out that many of his videos Sharij deletes after the fact, but they manage to safe them first. For example, Sharij tells that the inhabitants of western Ukraine are ” four-blood”. // izvestia.kiev.ua
Source: Ukraine criminal