Censor.net’s editor in chief won appeal against businessman from Dnipro

The panel of judges of the Dnipro Court of Appeal upheld the complaint of Censor.Net editor-in-Chief Yuri Butusov against businessman Oleksandr Petrovsky in the libel case.The court issued such a decision on December 5, as Censor.net reported, citing the site of the law firm "Sens Ukraine".

"The panel of judges of the Dnipro Court of Appeal granted Mr. Butusov's appeal and revoked the decision of the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovsk on August 13, 2018 and completely dismissed the Mr. Petrovsky's claim for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation," the statement said.

Oleksander Petrovsky had sued Censor.net and its editor in chief, since “his personality had been cast in a negative light” and the edition affirmed he would be related to a criminal world, naming him a “drug addict”, “crime boss”. He wanted 50 000 hryvnias to be paid him as compensation of moral damages and the edition to publish refutation.

The lawyers who defended Butusov's interests insisted that the persecution for such statements violated the principle of freedom of speech, referring to ECHR decisions. In addition, businessman Petrovsky is a public figure, and the limit of acceptable criticism for such persons is much wider than that of ordinary people.

As IMI reported, on March 1, 2019, the Babushkinsky district court in Dnipro ordered to impose upon Yuriy Butusov, editor in chief of “Censor.net”, to pay 357 thousands of hryvnias ($13 400) for moral damage for an untruthful information published on December 2018 in his personal Facebook page with a quotation of Yuriy Lutsenko, Prosecutor General from “Dzerkalo Tyzhnya” , saying that Petrovsky well known in certain milieu as a drug addict, figured in several criminal proceedings as a boss of organized crime structure.

The editor in chief of Censor.net Yuriy Butusov appealed against that decision of the Babushkinsky district court.

Photo credit: Yuriy Butusov's Facebook page