Yuriy Velychko, Chutove district director at the JSC Poltavaoblenergo, threatens to sue Darya Hustilina, chief editor with the news website Chutivskyi Kray over her reporting and demands a takedown of her post. Darya Hustilina reported this to Nadia Kucher, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Poltava oblast.
Hustilina says that she posted a news story about a local entrepreneur who had installed solar panels on his house and had issues with Poltavaoblenergo over his use of electricity for business purposes to the Chutivskyi Kray Facebook page on 5 December.
Later, a representative of Poltavaoblenergo’s Chutove branch contacted her with a demand to take down the post and threats to sue her if the demand was not met.
“I refused to delete the post, but I did reply to the Poltavaoblenergo representative that if I had reported inaccurate or incomplete information, I would be happy to post an explanation by Poltavaoblenergo. Moreover, the man whom the story was about shared all the supporting documents regarding the situation in question,” said Hustilina.
The journalist added that the article did mention that according to Article 43 of the Law of Ukraine “On Media”, individuals and organisations have the right to a response and that Chutivsky Krai would publish one.
“To this, the branch director asked if I was refusing to delete the post. I replied that I refused to delete the story, but I would post his comment on the situation. We also agreed on a meeting to discuss the issue,” says the journalist.
Darya Hustilina added that when they met in person, Poltavaoblenergo’s Chutove branch director told her that he would be “speaking differently.”
“He did not explain what he meant. He said that he would go to the police and the court,” the journalist said.
IMI lawyer Volodymyr Zelenchuk said that Poltavaoblenergo is a commercial, private legal entity and the purpose of a company’s work is to meet the market’s needs for products, works and services.
“That is, the relationship between the consumer and the company is essentially contractual. The same as, say, when a person goes to a cafe, receives inadequate service there, and writes a negative comment or review,” the lawyer says. He adds that usually responsible owners of commercial businesses do not demand that the website where the comment or review was written take it down as misleading.
“Instead the they respond, explain, and try to convince other potential consumers that they know how to respond to negativity no matter how justified it may be,” says Volodymyr Zelenchuk. He adds that in reality the situation showcases not only the problem of market monopolisation or Poltavaoblenergo’s history as a state-owned company, but also that the legal mechanism for retracting unreliable reporting quite often harms freedom of speech in the country.
“In this case, the media outlet only acted as a relay of the views of a person who saw an issue in his contractual relations with the other party. The demand to take down this post is an attempt not to resolve the conflict but to remove it from the public eye,” the IMI lawyer is convinced. He notes that access to information that points to a human rights violation cannot be restricted.
“There was a reason why the author of the news story mentioned the media outlet’s willingness to publish the other party’s opinion, because they are equal participants in the contractual relations. Poltavaoblenergo does not want to use this opportunity and it is actually pretty clear why,” explains Volodymyr Zelenchuk.