“The Kyiv Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of Nataliya Sedletska, head of Radio Svoboda’s Kyiv bureau and the “Scheme” investigative project, and upheld the decision of the Pechersk Court, which sided with Andriy Portnov, a former official from the time of Viktor Yanukovych, in the case of protecting his honor, dignity and reputation”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
The Kyiv Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of Nataliya Sedletska, head of Radio Svoboda’s Kyiv bureau and the “Scheme” investigative project, and upheld the decision of the Pechersk Court, which sided with Andriy Portnov, a former official from the time of Viktor Yanukovych, in the case of protecting his honor, dignity and reputation
Source: “Radio Liberty”
Details: The decision to reject the complaint was announced on September 25 by a trio of judges Anatoliy Stryzheus, Lyubov Polyvach and Olena Shkorina.
Radio Svoboda verbatim: “Portnov, who is under US sanctions and has left Ukraine, sued Sedletska and a number of other media outlets in the fall of 2020 due to her post on Facebook, published on August 17, 2020, the day the Schem editor’s car was set on fire. In the post, Sedletska mentioned about Portnov’s negative attitude towards the editorial office, in particular, about the fact that he made public the driver’s personal data with his residential address and the license plates of the eventually burned car, and on the eve of the arson, he publicly threatened “educational measures” for the investigative editorial office.
Details: Sedletska commented on the court’s decision, indicating that her defense will appeal to the Supreme Court. She said that in the post of 2020, because of which Portnov decided to sue, she stated the facts and “emphasized that these are only the facts, and there may be many versions.”
Sedletska’s direct speech: “But the courts sided with Portnov. The judges of the two instances decided that I should refute my post, including the facts stated in it…
This is not the first decision of the Ukrainian courts in favor of Portnov in a short period of time, who is obviously working to whiten his reputation…
The most experienced Ukrainian media lawyers who defended me in this process believe that such decisions are a threat to freedom of speech. Judges actually undermined the right of Ukrainian citizens to express themselves regarding socially important events, even on the basis of concrete facts.”