ROG strongly condemns death threats against Swiss journalists

The threats are a consequence of research on Andriy Pavelko, the president of the Ukrainian Football Federation, which Bédat recently published. They are unacceptable and must be strictly condemned, ROG said in a statement Thursday. The organization calls on the relevant judicial and police authorities to "react with great determination and ensure the absolute protection of the journalist."

In his articles for L'Illustré highlighted Arnaud Bédat a loan of 4 million euros received by the president of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU), Andriy Pavelko, on behalf of the Ukrainian Football Association from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), based in Nyon (VD). Last November, the journalist was called by a stranger with a Ukrainian phone number; the caller made explicit death threats against Bédat.

Alarmed by these threats, Bédat filed a criminal complaint with the Swiss Attorney General's Office. The latter forwarded it to the Jura authorities, who were responsible for the matter. According to Bédat, the telephone number on which the threats were made corresponds to one of the numbers of Andriy Pavelko - who was recently elected as a member of the UEFA Executive Committee.

Despite his very long experience as an investigative journalist, Bédat admits that such threats are "more difficult to bear than one might imagine." He has formally asked the Swiss authorities to protect him.

Such threats are extremely rare in Switzerland, unacceptable and constitute a serious violation of freedom of information, ROG Switzerland warns. In an environment marked by a rise in violence against journalists around the world - it reached unprecedented and worrying levels in 2018, according to ROG's latest annual report - Swiss media professionals work in a particularly favorable environment so far, the NGO writes: In ROG's latest freedom of information ranking, Switzerland ranks 5th out of 180 countries.