On 21 July, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv dismissed motions filed by the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ANTAC) and Slidstvo.Info, who asked the court to cancel its previous ruling passed on 6 July. The ruling introduced a ban on releasing an investigation into the real estate owned by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) director’s brother, Oleksandr Sukhachov, ANTAC reported.
ANTAC remarked that the court rejected their arguments that the earlier ruling had been unlawful. The judge concluded that the applicants failed to prove that the ban was no longer necessary.
The judge also dismissed the arguments regarding restriction of reporting, claiming they were “untenable” becuse the action taken by the court had involved no prohibition on carrying out reporting.
“Moreover, the company generally avoided mentioning the name of the State Bureau of Investigation director’s brother in their lawsuit, unlike in their earlier application. Even though the application filed by LLC Parkovyi-2 and the court ruling specified that the ban should apply specifically to Sukhachov’s brother as an individual, Sukhachov himself is not even a party to the dispute, and LLC Parkovyi-2 had no right to apply in Sukhachov’s interests,” ANTAC wrote.
Previously
On 6 July, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv granted a motion by Parkovyi-2 and temporarily banned Slidstvo.Info, the Anti-Corruption Action Center, and journalist Alina Stryzhak from releasing and distributing the investigation into the assets of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) director’s brother, Oleksandr Sukhachov. In the lawsuit, the company claimed that banning the distribution of this information was not censorship since the law allowed such restrictions in certain cases.
Both Slidstvo.Info and the Anti-Corruption Action Center said that they viewed this as pressure on journalists and an attack on freedom of speech. The journalists will appeal the court’s ruling and seek to release the investigation.
IMI lawyer Volodymyr Zelenchuk has said that the court ban on publishing the unreleased investigation had the characteristics of a SLAPP.
On 7 July, the Media Movement along with several media and human rights organisations expressed concern about possible systemic pressure on investigative journalism by law enforcement agencies.
The Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv has stated that the ban on publishing the investigation was temporary.
On 13 July, Parkovyi-2 sued Slidstvo.Info, ANTAC, and journalist Alina Stryzhak after they requested comments for an investigation into real estate owned by Oleksandr Sukhachov, the brother of the State Bureau of Investigations director.
On 17 July, eight Ukrainian news outlets published the investigation into the 143 real estate objects found by Slidstvo.Info to be owned by the SBI director’s brother.
