Ukrainian media to defame UOC – reaction of the Head of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate’s) Legal Department
May 23, 2017 – The prayer service under the walls of the Verkhovna Rada caused a flood of fakes, as reports UOJ. The Ukrayinska Pravda published one of them, reports Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, the Head of the Legal Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP).
“After the prayer service under the Verkhovna Rada, various “sensations” or fakes appeared on social media. And here you are! The Ukrayinska Pravda received a video from an eyewitness. “The clip shows a father, holding a bundle of money, speaking with a young man with an open backpack in his hands.” Everything looks as if the priest had prepared cash for paying off young men for attending the rally.
The witness of this scene asserts that the cleric supposedly paid wages to people for attending the meeting. Upon further investigation, it turned out that it was simply a pizza delivery. Archpriest Alexander Bakhov expressed his concern on his Facebook account, and raised the possibility that the journalists from the Ukrainian Pravda, who published the fake story, had never taken the time to analyze the video. It looks as if they did not follow the professional standards of verifying their information prior to presenting it to the public.
Video document from The Ukrayinska Pravda
Sources
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=470398486629567&id=100009782594644&pnref=story