Former head of Zhytomyr regional council partly won litigation against “Berdychevsky poglyad”

The deputy and former head of the Zhytomyr regional council, Angelika Labunska, partly won the trial against the “Berdychevsky poglyad” newspaper. The Berdychiv city district court has decided that some fragments of the article published by the newspaper were untrue and the media had to recover UAH 10,000 of moral damage ($ 388) to the plaintiff, instead of required by her 100 thousand UAH ($3 880), as to the website of the National state register of court decisions. The deputy Labunska had sued the newspaper for libel, after publication of the article of January 15, 2016, “After-taste of the Elections-2015 or L-shaped move à la Berdychev” signed by  schoolteacher Velentyn Gonol. As to the plaintiff, the article was aiming "to discredit her as a patriot, a politician, an active public figure, a philanthropist, a law-abiding citizen, with fictitious and groundless allegations; (author) related her unscrupulousness and immorality of her behavior in political life, " she said. The newspaper had stated the articled contained some evaluative judgement, not the factual assertion. “We are not agree with the decision of the court and consider this is crackdown on press freedom. I am convinced the status and influence of the plaintiff-millionaire had been defining for this decision. At present, the editorial board prepared an appeal and would go on defending oneself”, as Vita Kovtonyuk, editor in chief of “Berdychevsky poglyad” told IMI correspondent in Zhytomyr region. Angelika Labunska has estimated the moral damage in the amount of 100 thousand UAH, and demanded to transfer the sum to the Zhytomyr regional orphanage.