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The magazine “Zhenskiy Zhournal” won the court case against Sergey Vlasenko
The High Specialized Court of Ukraine ruled to leave the verdict of the Appellate Court without any changes according to the decision of Pechersk District Court about the lawsuit of Sergei Vlasenko against the magazine “Zhenskiy Zhournal”. The litigation lasted a year and ended with a peremptory victory of media.
This is an interesting precedent for glossy media, where the practices of interviews about personal life are quite common things.
The reason why Sergey Vlasenko went to court was an interview with Natalia Akunska (an ex-wife of Vlasenko), which was published in the Magazine “Zhenskiy Zhournal”, № 7 in July 2010. The plaintiff asked the court to refute some of the published quotes. On his opinion, they were unreliable and caused the damage to his dignity and business reputation.
Pechersk district court made a decision in favor of the magazine "Zhenskiy Zhournal" on November 16, 2010. In this process, the court representative of Vlasenko demanded a refutation of quotations, as well as a compensation for moral damages in the amount of 200 000 hryvnia and a compensation of expenses for psycho-linguistic examination in the amount of 20 000 hryvnia.
By court decision published text is copyrighted material, and information has an nature of evaluative judgments, that according to article 30 of the Law of Ukraine "About information" a journalist has the free right to get, use and spread open information.
Alla Bronishevskaya, General Counsel of Atlantic Group: “For us victory in this court case is very important. To protect the interests of publishers we used not only the norms of Ukrainian legislation, but also international practices including the practice of dispute resolution by the European Court of Human Rights, as well we were guided by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It was nice to see that the civilized practice of the European Court and the law also can be applied in Ukraine”.
Natalia Prozorovskaya, Lawyer of the magazine “Zhenskiy Zhournal": "The Court came to the correct conclusion that the published information can’t be regarded as an unreliable one, because it is the evaluative judgment of journalist. The Court reconfirmed one more time the journalists have rights to freedom of opinion and expression".
The magazine “Zhenskiy Zhournal” – a monthly magazine for strong and stylish ladies. It belongs to the publishing house Perekhid Publishing House. The publishing house Perekhid Publishing House (PPH) is a division of communication holding Atlantic Group (AGL).
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