News website Galka wins appeal in official's lawsuit against them

The Ivano-Frankivsk Court of Appeal granted the motion by LLC “Agency for Law Technologies” (publisher of the Prykarpattia media outlet Galka) in the defamation lawsuit by deputy Ihor Fris on May 12, 2025, Galka reports.

The media outlet says that on January 4, 2023, they released a news story titled “Prykarpattia deputy refuses to sign appeal to withdraw OPFL deputies' mandates, reports Chesno”. It reported on the initiative by MP Oleh Dunda which Ihor Fris did not sign.

May 12, 2025 court hearing. Photo by galka.if.ua

Ihor Fris responded by suing Galka, stating in his lawsuit that he considered the reported information to be misleading (distorted), since he co-authored three other addresses to the Verkhovna Rada Chair on this issue and at least two draft bills on a related topic. He requested that the court order the media outlet to retract the reported information.

In 2023, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court partially sided with the plaintiff and ordered Galka to publish a retraction. The team filed an appeal, which the Ivano-Frankivsk Court of Appeal granted on January 25, 2024, refusing to grant Fris’s claim.

On March 7, 2024, Fris filed a cassation appeal, with the Supreme Court referring the case back to the Court of Appeal for retrial.

During yet another court hearing, Galka's defense attorney Yevhen Vorobyov, a lawyer at the NGO Human Rights Platform, attached more evidence to the case: a letter from MP Oleh Dunda. It was an official response regarding the collection of MPs' signatures under an address to the Verkhovna Rada Chair asking the latter to include draft bills No. 7476, 7466 and others related to the reform on the agenda.

The letter addressed to Yevhen Vorobyov, Dunda states that during the signature collection, Ihor Fris refused to sign the address requesting to revoke the mandates of the persons elected as members of the former OPFL. Moreover, the document mentions that lists of signatories as of early 2023 have been provided at the requests by the media outlets Chesno and Galka. After the lists were published, all MPs were sent an additional offer to confirm or refuse to participate in the address in writing. According to Dunda, MP Ihor Fris gave no reply.

Taking into account the available material and the new evidence, the court stood in defense of the information agency Galka again on May 12, 2025. The ruling has entered into force and will be published in full within 10 calendar days. Ihor Fris has the right to appeal to the cassation court again.