Court of Appeal dismissed claim of Skhemy driver in case against Portnov
On December 14, the Kyiv Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal filed by Borys Mazur, driver with Skhemy program challenging the decision by the Pechersk District Court, which in August disallowed him a lawsuit to protect his right to privacy and rejected a request to oblige the former MP and former deputy head of the Presidential Administration. Andriy Portnov to take down his personal data from the public space, as Radio Liberty reported.
After the integral text of the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal with the motivational part is published, they will appealed against it in cassation, said Borys Mazur's lawyer Oksana Maksymenyuk.
"The court establises a dangerous practice through which the personal information of any person can be disseminated as a way to protect their rights, although the law says that such dissemination is illegal and is allowed only in exceptional cases. Now, based on this decision, any person can make public any personal data of the person and consider that such way of defense is lawful and corresponds to principles of proportionality and reasonableness ", - Maksymenyuk said.
The decision in favor of Andriy Portnov was made by a panel of judges of the Kyiv City Court of Appeal consisting of Hanna Kryzhanivska, Maksym Onishchuk and Victoria Shebuyeva.
"The decision of the court of first instance came into force. That is, in fact, the appeal obliged Borys Mazur to reimburse 52,000 hryvnias (around $1,800) to Andriy Portnov for payment of his legal services. We will also file a petition, which will suspend the execution of the decision of the first instance until the end of the cassation review. This will stop the collection of legal fees, "Maksymenyuk said.
As IMI reported, in September 2020, it became known that National Police abandoned the criminal proceedings against Andriy Portnov, who had previously publicly threatened the editorial board of the Skhemy investigative journalism program and disclosed the detailed personal data of the program's drivers.
The criminal proceedings were registered under two articles of the Criminal Code: “Obstruction to the lawful professional activity of journalists” and “Threat or violence against the journalist”. Proceedings under the first article have been dropped on July 31, and under the second one have been dropped on August 5, 2020. The cases were dropped "due to the absence of elements of crime."
As IMI reported, on August 31 2020, Svitlana Volkova, a judge of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv dismissed the privacy claim filed by Skhemy’s driver Borys Mazur. Thus, his request to oblige former Deputy Chief of Staff Andriy Portnov to revoke his personal data from the public domain has been rejected. The court also ruled to recover 52,500 hryvnias (around $1 892) of lawyers’ fees of Portnov from Borys Mazur.
As IMI reported, Two Radio Liberty employees Serhiy Ishchenko and Borys Mazur have filed civil claims with the Pechersk district court of Kyiv against the deputy head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Portnov., as Detektor Media reported, citing the Judiciary website.
The claims were filed on April 13 and 14 in order to defend one’s right to privacy, to obligation the defender to remove personal data and to oblige him to repair moral damage.
There is no information about the date of the court hearings as for now.
On October 31, the former MP and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Viktor Yanukovych Andriy Portnov in his Telegram channel disclosed the personal data of a member of the TV crew of “Schemes: corruption in details" program, as the editorial board is preparing an investigation into the influence and relations of the former official with the new Ukrainian authorities.
Then, he disclosed data of number plates of three other cars related to “Schemes” journalists.
The "Schemes" editorial board regards it is direct pressure.
On November 4, the media movement “Media for conscious choice” and other media figures call on the authorities and the law enforcement agencies to hold the former official Andriy Portnov to account for having threatened journalists with “Scheme” investigative program and ask to ensure security for journalists.
On November 2, 2019, Andriy Portnov threatened the entire editorial board of the Schema investigative journalism program with the publication of "their detailed personal and personal information," as well as "analysis of private life and unobtrusive support in the dark," and published three license plates . in his words, related to journalists.
On November 4, 2019, the Media for Conscious Choice Movement and other media representatives called on the authorities and law enforcement agencies to bring Andriy Portnov to justice and asked to guarantee the safety of journalists.
On November 7, the police have launched criminal proceedings due to threats to the journalists with Radio Liberty, as it is reported on the website of the National Police.
The aforementioned information is qualified obstruction to lawful activity of journalists and threat or violence against a journalist.
As IMI reported, on October 31, the former MP and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Viktor Yanukovych Andriy Portnov in his Telegram channel disclosed the personal data of a member of the TV crew of “Schemes: corruption in details" program, as the editorial board is preparing an investigation into the influence and relations of the former official with the new Ukrainian authorities.
Then, he disclosed data of number plates of three other cars related to “Schemes” journalists. The "Schemes" editorial board regards it is direct pressure.
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