Mayor of Irpin sues local journalist

The mayor of the town of Irpin, Kyivska oblast, Volodymyr Karpliuk, filed a claim to court against a journalist, member of the village council, Iryna Fedoriv. The latter tells about this in her blog at "Ukrainska Pravda".

According to her, a local web-site “Hromada Pryirpinnya” ("Irpin Region Community") reprinted the material published on the website of a grass-roots movement “Chesno” and “Ukrainska Pravda”, pertaining “new faces”, where new political parties were analyzed, in particular, the party “Nove Oblychchya” ("New Face"), headed by Karpliuk. In this material, among other things, the analysts studied Karliuk’s tax declaration.

Now, the mayor of Irpin sues Fedoriv, demanding to refute two statements in "Hromada Pryirpinnya" (he agrees the rest of the materials are valid and true). These two claims are: 1) "Volodymyr Karliuk is protégé of Petro Melnyk, and 2) "...he built his own network of local media outlets and advertisement boards".

The Institute of Media Law’s lawyer Halyna Chyzhyk does not doubt that her client can rightfully win the trial against her – the first claim that the mayor wants refuted, she says, is simply a judgement, an opinion - it cannot really be proven or denied. The second statement is a judgement based on facts that also can be easily proven. The journalist herself thinks that this court proceeding is just a method to draw the attention of national media before the local elections.