The media extended information that the fighters of the Chechen battalion Akhmat in Melitopol attacked the NTV journalist and its operator. We checked whether this information corresponds to reality.
The news of the affected employees of the NTV television channel began spread January 30, 2023 in Ukrainian Media and Telegram-channels. According to media reports, in the city of Melitopol of the Zaporizhzhya region, the Kadyrovites raped the Russian journalist of the NTV channel and beat its operator. To Telegram-posts A photograph of the appeal allegedly written by the NTV Directorate in the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation with a request to investigate the incident is also attached. Many Telegram-channels It is added that “this topic was forbidden to illuminate in the news so as not to“ discredit the army ”. They are trying to hush up in a quiet way, but the NTV leadership has already reached the investigation of the Russian Federation. ” This news also spread in social networks Facebook, "VKontakte" Instagram, YouTube.
Messages about the attack on the NTV film crew are based on two arguments: photos of the application of the TV channel in the Investigative Committee (SK) and video, where the Kadyrovtsy attack on the operator is allegedly captured. The video can be found in some Ukrainian media, for example, in "Apostrof". According to the article, “Video is promptly removed from the Internet” to hush up the incident. Another Ukrainian edition, ""Dialog.ua", Puts forward the version that among the attackers - Hassan Ibragimov, who, according to the publication, is the nephew of Ramzan Kadyrov (we could not find evidence of this). Nevertheless, the video that was distributed by the media is not related to the alleged incident with NTV employees. First of all, it was removed and Layd On the Internet a few weeks earlier - December 26, 2022. Secondly, this video captures the beating of a man in Simferopol (and not Melitopol) by the security forces of Akhmat and a person, Similar On Hassan Ibragimov. Most likely, it was because of confusion with the video that many media began bind The name of Ibragimov with an incident with NTV.
As for the photograph of the statement of the television channel in the UK - we were not able to find obvious signs of photographic fif. Nevertheless, this cannot serve as evidence of authenticity, especially in the case of a black and white text document, which can be created without the use of graphic editors. Pro-government online agency "Lapsha. Media" claimsthat the document has inconsistencies. For example, the employer, the editor -in -chief of NTV, Alexander Kosharnitskaya, and not the victim, the application was reported to the SK Directorate for Media interaction, which is not involved in the acceptance of applications about crimes, as well as instead of standard formulation of “violent actions of sexual nature”, “violent actions of sexual nature” was submitted. Nevertheless, as it is written in the statement itself, “information about this incident was immediately communicated to the military commandant’s office and the law enforcement authorities of the city of Melitopol. However, in the opening of the criminal proceedings and fixation of the circumstances of the commission of the crime, employees of the NTV television company JSC were denied. This information was also sent by the acting governor of the Zaporizhzhya region E.V. Balitsky. At the moment, the response to our appeal has not been received. ” That is, the UK is the third instance that NTV allegedly turned to.
Theoretically, it is possible that, due to the inaction of law enforcement agencies, the editorial office of the channel decided to act through its own connections in the UK-the management of interaction with the media-to ask for "assistance in conducting an investigation." Thus, an atypical addressee of the appeal does not give full confidence that the document is fake. But the wording of “violent actions of sexual nature” causes great suspicions (The wording In the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “violent actions of a sexual nature”). The search for such a phrase in Google gave only six results, and not one of them is found in any authoritative source. In the NTV statement several articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation were quoted. If he was really signed by the chief of the NTV, then most likely she used the services of lawyers who would hardly make such a mistake in the wording.
Another argument of pro -government agencies - Zenkova works in the Urals of the NTV Bureau and removes plots in the cities of the Urals and Western Siberia. This is mostly true, with the exception of a three -week Business trips Zenkova in Donetsk in July 2014 (military operations in the city began after the arrival of the crew). And in September 2022, Zenkova released reportage From Turkey. According to the text of the statement in the UK, Zenkova and the operator were in Melitopol on the editorial assignment and were attacked on January 17, 2023. In January, Zenkova came out Videos, filmed in Yamal (January 4 and 6), Surgut (January 23), Chelyabinsk (January 30) and Ust-Ilimsk (January 31). We were not able to find either evidence or refutations that Zenkov was in Melitopol on the day of the incident.
Olga Zenkovalike her operator Artyom EpifanovThey are in the Ukrainian base “Peacemaker” - an open database of personal data of people who were in the combat zone in Ukraine or pose “a threat to the national security of Ukraine”. Apparently, they got there as employees of the Russian State Media, and not for their military reports.
It is worth noting that the NTV channel itself Refuted Messages about the attack on his employees. But the Ukrainian media Explain This is the fact that they allegedly pressed the state of state in order to hush up the story with the participation of the Kadyrovites. “Verified” called according to the number indicated in the statement of the phone number of “Contractor” Sergei Prokhorov. A woman answered the call, who did not comment on whether she was familiar with Sergei Prokhorov and whether it was related to NTV, but she was clearly aware of the story. Perhaps because we were far from the first to call her about this.
The earliest publication of a photo of the statement in the UK, which we managed to find, appeared in the Ukrainian Telegram channel Top News January 30 at 11:05 (173,000 views on the day of publication). At 11:25, the same photo with the hashtag “#nursing” and laid out another popular Ukrainian Telegram channel with his logo ”Look for your own", Who writes about prisoners and dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine (192,000 views). At 12:11 Ukrainian Internet resource "Reviewer»Published a photograph already with the publication logo imposed and wrote that" he received a document from his own sources. " Not a single Ukrainian source specifies how exactly to him or his subscribers came a photograph of the NTV statement in the RF IC.
Thus, the arguments of both parties raise questions and do not indisputed this or that version. We were not able to find either direct evidence or refutations that on January 17 NTV employees were in Melitopol and were attacked. Nevertheless, the doubtfulness of the original source, the inaccuracy of the formulation in the published circulation in the UK, as well as the output schedule and the geography of Olga Zenkova’s plots are serious doubts about its authenticity. And since the photograph of the document is, in fact, the only argument on which the version of the Ukrainian media is based, there is reason to consider the whole history of fabricated.
Image on the cover: Telegram
Most likely not true
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