Nikita Makarenko

Affiliated media: Journalist, Blogger

Incident date: July 26, 2023

Attack type:

• Defamation, spreading libel about a media worker or media outlet

Who attacked: Non-authorities

Source: Acca.media

Location: Uzbekistan, Tashkent

Additional information:

A campaign to discredit journalist Nikita Makarenko took place on social networks, involving bloggers with ambiguous reputations. Makarenko said: «Blogger Saodat Abduzakirova spread a primitive Photoshop-made fake on Facebook, where my head is inserted in place of a photo of German politician Dirk Behrendt, and claims that I allegedly visited the Berlin Pride parade». Saodat herself did not delete her post even after she was accused of defamation and spreading a fake, claiming that she had used a screenshot of the original photo of him attending a gay pride parade. Blogger Shukhrat Musayev threatened to «deal» with Makarenko as blogger Bazarov, who was severely beaten in March 2021.