Dental polyclinic director sues "Konkurent", demands UAH 100,000

Lyubov Yakovchuk, director of the Lutsk City Dental Polyclinic, filed a defamation lawsuit against the media outlet "Konkurent", demanding a UAH 100,000 compensation for moral damages.

The IMI representative in the Volyn oblast, Maia Holub, was informed about this by the "Konkurent" editor-in-chief Andriy Luchyk.

The plaintiff claims that the information shared by "Konkurent" in five articles harms her dignity and business reputation and demands that it be declared misleading. She asks the court to order the media outlet to remove all five articles mentioning her from the website. Yakovchuk also demands the editors repay her the court fees and professional legal assistance.

Andriy Luchyk considers Yakovchuk's demands excessive.

According to him, the team received the lawsuit in early January. A preliminary court hearing was scheduled for February 7 at the Lutsk City and District Court.

The articles about Lyubov Yakovchuk were published between September 19 and December 5, 2023.

The materials in question are as follows:

• "The scandalous Lyubov Yakovchuk becomes the Lutsk Dental Polyclinic director (photo)" – Yakovchuk disagrees with the headline, claiming that the mention of her "scandalousness" is false. The director of the dental polyclinic also considers the following information to be manipulative: "Our sources at the polyclinic told us that Mrs. Yakovchuk constantly complained to the 'high offices' in order to take the chair as head of the institution."

An article which Lyubov Yakovchuk wants deleted from the "Konkurent" website. Screenshot by the IMI

• "Scandal at the Lutsk Dental Polyclinic: an incompetent 'admin' was hired instead of a manager (photo)" – Yakovchuk believes that the author of the article accuses her of making inefficient decisions.
• "Lutsk Dental Polyclinic plans to relocate their dentists: what problems does this pose to doctors and patients" – the plaintiff believes that the author gives "his expert assessment" of her management decisions.
• "Lutsk Dental Polyclinic takes money from combatants for free services (photo)" – the plaintiff believes that she is being accused of violating the law.

An article which Lyubov Yakovchuk wants deleted from the "Konkurent" website. Screenshot by the IMI

• "The Lutsk Dental Polyclinic diretor holds her position illegally" – the director believes that the article contains misleading information that harms her honor, dignity and business reputation.

At the same time, the "Konkurent" editor-in-chief Andriy Luchyk says that the team included her opinion in most of the articles.

"In other words, we did everything to properly balance the opinions in the articles. What interests me most is how a sentence saying that Ihor Polishchuk lobbies for Yakovchuk's interests harms her honor, dignity and business reputation? Does she consider him such a bad person that mentioning him in one sentence humiliates her?" Andriy Luchyk remarked.