POLICE IDENTIFIED STRANGER THREATENING BDG JOURNALIST The stranger, calling journalist Iryna Makavetskaya in the middle of the night and threatening her with death, turned out to be Viachaslaw Bulkin, 25, staff member of Homel state-owned TV and Radio company.

21.01.2004.

Press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports, the police refused to start proceedings on the case of telephone threats in the night of January 11. Iryna Makavetskaya learned that on January 20 from Valery Stryhalow, head of Chyhunachny borough Police Department #2. In the end of last week the police identified the stranger. It turned out to be Viachaslaw Bulkin, 25, employee of Homel TV and Radio company. However, the law-enforcing bodies did not consider his actions a crime.
On Sunday Viachaslaw Bulkin had to right an explanation note. He wrote he called Iryna with the purpose to "express his opinion", claiming he had no malicious aforethought and no intent to make short shrift of the journalist. He motivated his actions by the fact that Iryna worked for an opposition newspaper and spread information, which "did not correspond to reality". He also claimed he did not know Iryna personally and promised not to bother her anymore.

Obviously, the law-enforcing bodies decided those explanations completely justified him. The journalist is indignant at the refusal of the police to launch criminal proceedings against Bulkin. Besides that, she doubts that he has acted independently: Mr. Bulkin called her at 4 a.m. He claims he found out her home phone number in a database at work. Iryna believes, this is the evidence that he had an "aforethought". Besides that, Bulkin, an employee of the TV and Radio company, did not know her personally, but was surprisingly well aware of her articles and trials she wrote about.

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