Court of Appeal sides with Portnov in Sedletska case

Photo by Radio Liberty

The Kyiv Court of Appeal dismissed the complaint filed by Natalia Sedletska, the director of Radio Liberty's Kyiv bureau and of the "Skhemy" project, in the defamation lawsuit by Andriy Portnov, an ex-deputy and former Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. The Court upheld the ruling by the Pechersk District Court, who judged in Portnov's favor.

The verdict was announced on September 25 by the judges Anatoliy Stryzheus, Lyubov Polyvach and Olena Shkorina, Radio Liberty reports.

Portnov sued Sedletska and multiple other media outlets in the fall of 2020 over her Facebook post dated August 17, 2020 – the day a "Skhemy" corporate car was set on fire. In the post, Sedletska mentioned Portnov's negative attitude towards the team, namely the fact that he had leaked the personal data of their driver, including his address and the license plates of the car that was subsequently set on fire, and on the eve of the arson, he publicly threatened to "teach a lesson" to the investigative journalism project.

The full court ruling with the arguments has not yet been released.

After it is published, Natalia Sedletska's defense will file a cassation appeal against the Kyiv Court of Appeal's judgement in favor of Andriy Portnov in the Supreme Court.

Media lawyer Lyudmyla Pankratova notes that Portnov's numerous lawsuits against the media aim to discourage journalists from reporting or reporting as much on Portnov and his influence.

"Such lawsuits seriously threaten freedom of speech, as they have a 'chilling effect' on journalists and the media. This appears to be particularly dangerous in times of war, seeing as journalists investigate corruption as well as war crimes, and citizens have a right to receive such information. Silencing information about such public figures as Portnov deprives society of this information. Such signals from the authorities cannot be ignored – it is necessary to speak out about the threat to journalists and to freedom of speech," she said.

In April 2023, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv judged in Portnov's favour and ordered Natalia Sedletska to retract the information in her post by sharing the court's ruling on her Facebook page. The court ruled that Hromadske, NV, Channel 5 and Pryamyi, which shared the journalist's post, had to do the same.

Sedletska's defense disagreed with the Pechersk Court's judgement and filed an appeal. This ruling will take effect after the full text is published by the Kyiv Court of Appeals, but the Court of Cassation may overturn it in the future.

Previously

On November 1, 2019, Andriy Portnov leaked the personal data of the "Skhemy" crew's driver. The outlet was investigating the former official's influence and connections with the new Ukrainian government. The editors saw this as direct pressure on their team.

On November 2, 2019, Andriy Portnov threatened to leak the data of the entire "Skhemy" team and published three more car numbers, which, according to him, had to do with the journalists.

On April 13 and 14, 2020, the two "Skhemy" drivers, Serhiy Ishchenko and Borys Mazur, sued Andriy Portnov in the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv for violating their right to privacy, demanding he remove their personal data and pay for moral damages.

However, the Pechersk District Court dismissed Borys Mazur and Serhiy Ishchenko's claim. Mazur's defense filed an appeal, but on December 14, 2020, the Kyiv Court of Appeals dismissed it as well.

On January 15, 2021, Boris Mazur's defense, disagreeing with the verdicts by the first two courts, filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court. In 2022, the Supreme Court granted Boris Mazur's cassation appeal in part by overruling the decision of the Pechersk and Kyiv Courts of Appeal and sending the case to the court of first instance for a new trial.

In 2021, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Andriy Portnov.