Barysau: independent journalist lost the trial

On 7 October in the morning Barysau district court pronounced the verdict on the honor and dignity protection lawsuit of V.Pratasevich, editor of the newspaper of Barysau executive committee Adzinstva against the Bukas Media Center enterprise and the journalist V.Nikitski.

The court proceedings on the lawsuit started in April 2009. On 1 April 2009 the non-state newspaper Barysauskiya Naviny published an article with information about the unlawful actions of L.Harnak, head of the ideological department of Barysau town executive committee, and the editor of Adzinstva who paid visits to the shops where Barysauskiya Naviny was sold and prohibited the sale of the newspaper.

Pratasevich considered this information insulting and went to the law. During the trial she solicited for holding a linguistic expertise of the article.

The linguistic expertise established that the article contained the expressions that could be considered insulting in the case the facts that were described did not met the reality. The court took the opinion that there was no sufficient evidence of the visits to the shops, though the in the materials of the prosecutorial check-up that were attached to the case this fact is confirmed by Harnak’s testimony.

V.Nikitski is going to appeal against the court verdict.