The Kyiv Court of Appeal dismissed a motion by the Dnipro City Council Secretary, Oleksandr Sanzhara, contesting an earlier ruling by the Podilskyi District Court of Kyiv, which rejected his claim against the NGO Slidstvo.Info for mentioning him in a journalistic investigation.
The Court of Appeal passed the verdict on 2 July 2026, Slidstvo.Info reported.
In the motion, Oleksandr Sanzhara’s lawyer requested that the Podilskyi District Court ruling be cancelled and a new one, granting the official’s claim in full, be adopted.
However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Slidstvo.Info team’s actions had been lawful.
“Having reviewed the case files, the evidence provided by the parties, as well as the request to exercise the right to response and the defendant’s refusal to grant this request, the appellate court believes that the defendant [NGO Slidstvo.Info], having complied with the provisions of Article 43 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Media’, rightfully refused to grant the plaintiff’s request to exercise the right to response,” the appellate court’s ruling reads.
The court explained that the plaintiff had failed to provide any evidence or arguments in his request as to why the information reported by the journalists was false. Moreover, some statements which the official claimed were included in the investigation were not to be found there at all.
In his lawsuit, Oleksandr Sanzhara argued that the Slidstvo.Info team had to publish his comment on the material, even though the original story already quoted his replies at length. The appeal court said that the journalist writing the investigation had provided the official with an opportunity to answer all questions that were of public interest, and reflected his position in video comments.
Previously
On 30 March 2026, the Podilskyi District Court of Kyiv dismissed the lawsuit against the NGO Slidstvo.Info by the Dnipro City Council Secretary, Oleksandr Sanzhara, who had been mentioned in the organisation’s journalistic investigation. In the lawsuit, Sanzhara requested that the journalists’ actions be declared unlawful and that the team be ordered to publish his response to the investigation, which concerned his business trips and his use of his private jet.
The lawsuite was triggered by a 2025 investigation in which the journalists discovered that the official used a private jet potentially worth over $100,000 for business trips to Europe. According to Slidstvo.Info, the jet in question is a 2002 Piper 28-161 Warrior, which was listed in Sanzhara’s property declaration.
