Yulia in Danger: Batkivshchyna Reported a Hunt for Its Leader

Yulia is in danger: Batkivshchyna announces a hunt for its leader

The persecution of Yulia Tymoshenko within the party is attributed to the current president of Ukraine.

Reported by the ANTI-COR portal with reference to the media.

Against the leader of the political party Batkivshchyna, Yulia Tymoshenko, an active PR campaign has begun in the media. This is reported by the party's press service. The corresponding appeal of the political council of the All-Ukrainian Union Batkivshchyna.

Appeal of the Political Council of the Batkivshchyna party to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Association of Periodical Press Publishers, the Ukrainian Association with Public Relations (Ukrainian Association of Public Relations), the International Non-Governmental Organization Reporters Without Borders, the International Non-Governmental Organization Transparency International:

"During the last three weeks, in Internet media and regional newspapers, a powerful and openly ordered dirty information campaign against Batkivshchyna and its leader Yulia Tymoshenko is being gradually unfolded."

According to our information, behind this campaign are the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Minister of Information Policy Yuriy Stets. The campaign technique is very simple. First a text is published on an internet resource that is not registered as media, then it serves as the primary source from which reprints go to regional print and Internet media.

In the last two weeks, the internet resource From-ua.com has acted as such a site, known to journalists and politicians as a "sewer well." It is reliably known that during Viktor Yanukovych's time, From-ua.com systematically carried out orders for Serhiy Arbuzov.

Currently the site has published articles about non-existent mansions and airplanes of Yulia Tymoshenko. The articles present false information regarding:

The electronic declaration of Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Supposed political arrangements of Batkivshchyna with other political forces.

Supposed existing connections between Batkivshchyna and the Kremlin.

We responsibly state that none of these publications are true and are slander against Batkivshchyna and its leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Despite the commissioned nature of the articles and contrary to journalistic ethics, these articles are widely reprinted by Internet media and newspapers of Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv regions and other regions. Batkivshchyna is aware that similar publications are planned to appear in printed media in all other regions of Ukraine, in particular: Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy.

According to available data, the dissemination of false articles in regional media follows a scheme that will become quite clear on one example. An offer is sent to editorial offices to place an article of this content:

"Good day, dear colleagues.

We have one article. The question is:

Can we place this on your site/in the newspaper?

How much will it cost?

What discount off the price?

Whom to transfer the payment to?

(a link to the article from From-ua.com)

I am waiting for your urgent reply.

Olga 066-355-41-88, 068-007-08-76.

Note that these phones belong to Olga Anatoliyivna Yuzvyuk, an advertising placement manager at LLC "Media Star Centre". Founders of LLC "Media Star Centre" are Kostyantyn Oleksandrovych Bertukh and Maksym Myakienko. Maksym Myakienko is also founder and director of LLC "ESTAR COMMUNICATION", which operates the site PR-portal (prportal.com.ua), dealing with placing sponsored materials.

From 1 to 7 in November, on behalf of LLC ESTAR COMMUNICATION, regional Internet media received proposals to place sponsored articles with false information about Yulia Tymoshenko's e-declaration, as well as articles with twisted data about a gas contract signed in 2009 year.

It is also known that 22 September 2016 year, the chief editor of the site PR-portal, Olesya Stoyko, spread on the social network Facebook a fake letter supposedly from the Executive Secretariat of Batkivshchyna addressing the heads of regional party organizations with a demand to organize a process of discrediting the Government of Volodymyr Groysman by disrupting the start of the heating season. We responsibly emphasize that such a letter from the Executive Secretariat of Batkivshchyna does not exist; it is entirely a fabrication and provocation by the PR-portal site.

In addition to the “sewer” sites on the Internet, the buyers of the dirty campaign against Batkivshchyna and its leader Tymoshenko also involved the PR agency Communication Group. In particular, a letter from the development director of Communication Group proposing to place a sponsored material against Tymoshenko was received by several editorial offices in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The material was the same as those published in Chernihiv region newspapers.

Besides the "drainage vats" on the Internet, the customers of the dirty campaign use bloggers who place their publications mainly on Facebook. An analysis of these bloggers’ posts (notably Karl Volokh) indicates that they all work for the presidential administration—praising Petro Poroshenko for any reason or without one, and criticizing all his opponents.

In light of the above, the Batkivshchyna party addresses the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy with a demand to hold public hearings on the dirty information campaign against Batkivshchyna and assess the social-political risks provoked by such campaigns.

Batkivshchyna asks the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Association of Periodical Publishers to provide an appropriate assessment of the actions of journalists and publishers who place openly sponsored materials, flouting the standards of publishing and journalistic ethics.

Batkivshchyna asks the Ukrainian Association of Public Relations and other PR agencies to provide a public assessment of the actions of their colleagues at LLC ESTAR COMMUNICATION and at Communication Group.

Batkivshchyna asks international non-governmental organizations Reporters Without Borders and Transparency International to take into account the use in Ukraine of dirty information technologies against an opposition political force and to give a public assessment of this incident. Batkivshchyna appeals to all honest journalists to adhere to journalistic ethics and not to engage with sponsored materials.