Kolo chief editor loses cyberbullying lawsuit against former Poltava City Council secretary

Tetyana Tsirulnik, chief editor of the Poltava-based news outlet Kolo, lost her lawsuit against the former Poltava City Council secretary, Andriy Karpov, whom she was suing over cyberbullying. On April 18, the Oktyabrskyi District Court of Poltava dismissed her defamation lawsuit against Karpov, as Tetyana Tsirulnik reported to Nadia Kucher, the IMI representative in Poltava oblast.

In a comment to the IMI's Poltava representative, thee journalist’s lawyer Dmytro Semekha suggested that the judge was probably swayed by the linguistic examination conclusions, which, the lawyer said, stated that Karpov’s post was a value judgment. The journalist and her lawyer say that they plan to file an appeal.

Previously

In February 2023 the editor-in-chief of the Poltava website "Kolo", Tetiana Tsirulnik, has filed a lawsuit against Poltava City Council secretary Andriy Karpov after facing cyber bullying over her article about Karpov.

In her defamation lawsuit, the journalist demanded that Karpov's post be recognized as degrading to her honor and dignity, that the part of the official's post where he claims that journalists are lying about his salary by alleging it exceeds 100 thousand hryvnias, be recognized as misleading, and that she be compensated for moral damage, which she estimated at 100 thousand hryvnias.

An October 26 news report titled "The price for 8 years of Vata Show: Poltava City Council secretary Andriy Karpov is raising money for an operation," had a reference to the official's Telegram channel, where he wrote about his treatment and the fundraising campaign.

Karpov posted this article on his social media, having taken screenshots from the "Kolo" website. The official accused the journalist of distorting the truth, claiming that she had written a news article with the headline "Karpov is raising money for penis enlargement/reduction surgery." After that, Karpov's supporters started humiliating and insulting the journalist in the comments under his Facebook post.