EBRD managing director says Ukrainian TV channel aired fake news
KYIV. May 31 (Interfax) - Francis Malige, Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), who will be in charge of EBRD activities in Ukraine from June 1, says he has caught a program of Ukraine's 1+1 television channel airing false information.
Malige posted a video to Facebook showing the wife and older son of Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk in a house with a fireplace and moldings, which was presented as proof that Danylyuk bought himself an apartment in London worth $1 million.
"The journalists who prepared this have an outstanding sense of ethics: they blurred the face of Olga's and Oleksandr's son. [...] The 'proof' photo was taken in Paris, in my family's apartment," Malige wrote.
"I know exactly when - the minister and his family spent a delightful evening with us during the Christmas break. The fireplace and moldings are still in Paris, thank you very much," Malige wrote in his statement, titled "Fake News at Work."
In April, Danylyuk denied reports on 1+1 that he owned or rented an apartment in London.
"First, I do not own an apartment in London. Secondly, I do not rent an apartment in London, either. Third, I do have a conflict with [Ukrainian businessman Ihor] Kolomoisky [co-owner of 1+1 television)," Danylyuk said at the time.