Mahiliou oblast court does turns down cassation complaint of 'Volny Horad'

On 6 May Mahiliou oblast court finished the consideration of the cassation complaint of Siarhei Niarouny, editor of the non-state Krychau newspaper Volny Horad and the founder of the newspaper Uladzimir Kudrautsau against the ruling of Chavusy district court of 17 February.

The College Board on civil cases, headed by the deputy chair of Mahiliou oblast court Sviatlana Stalmakhova, supported the verdict of the inferior court instance on non-granting the lawsuit of Volny Horad against the state newspaper Leninskiy Klich on protection of honor, dignity and business reputation.

Bear in mind that the reason for the lawsuit was a series of feuilletons that appeared almost every Saturday in the pages of Leninskiy Klich in 2005-2007. The satirical articles started appearing there in response to the hard criticism of the work of the editorial board of the state newspaper by Volny Horad. According to the plaintiffs, the journalists of the state newspaper deliberately distorted the facts with the aim to besmear the oppositional politicians in the eyes of common people. The legal proceedings lasted for more than a year. It was found that the pasquinade had been written by the editor of Leninskiy Klich Tatsiana Iukina, her deputy Uladzimir Daletski and the journalists Alexander Haurylenka and Aliaksei Ivanou. Despite the results of the linguistic expertise, according to which the published feuilletons are qualified as pamphlets, Chavusy district court turned down the lawsuit of Siarhei Niarouny and Uladzimir Kudrautsau because it allegedly could not find the resemblance between the characters of the articles and the real persons.