Alerts | Online intimidation or smear

Online media in Zaporizhia receive new threats from unknown Russian sources

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On 11 July 2022, IMI, a Kyiv-based media NGO, informed of new emails with threats received by online media in Zaporizhia, a major city under Ukrainian control close to the frontline in the South-East of the country. As in previous cases, the emails were sent from email addresses registered in Russia, with sets of rhymed text containing threats. News portal 061.ua received two new emails, on July 1 and July 4. The first text called the media’s journalists “ukronazis” and threatened that they would be jailed, while the second referred to the media’s reporting as “propaganda [full of] lies”. On July 7, Inform.zp.ua also received a new email with threats, this time claiming that the Russian Investigative Committee had opened a criminal case against the media’s journalists for “extremism”, and that their personal data had been handed to Russian authorities. It also threatened the media workers with “interrogations with torture and prison sentences” when Russia would occupy Zaporizhia if they continued working for the news website. Both 061.ua and Inform.zp.ua had previously received numerous threats with similar content from email addressess registered in Russia.

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