Party of the Regions sues newspaper over administrative resource allegations

One of the protesters with a placard reading: They write the truth and are taken to court

The hearing has been set for 29 August in the Kirovohrad Regional Economic Court over the suit brought by the Kirovohrad Regional Branch of the Party of the Regions. They are suing the Internet publication “Grechka” and demanding that the latter retract information which alleged that the party in power was using administrative resources.

The Economic Court held a preliminary hearing on 21 August, and adjourned the case under 29 August in order to give the claimant time to read the respondent’s answer and prepare their position.

Ihor Pohasiy who is representing Grechka said that he had asked for the case to be terminated. He believes that the case should not be heard by an economic court since there is nothing to suggest that the respondent uses the website for commercial purposes.

He asserts that the Party of the Regions suit seems to have been hastily done and it is full of mistakes. He expresses surprise that it was accepted since the economic court usually rejects suits where words are written wrongly, etc.  Usual businesspeople only succeed in getting a suit accepted after about the tenth effort.  “And here for some reason they’ve accepted a suit in which they’re trying to force a site to retract information”.

The suit is actually against the web designer, not the editor. The lawyer said that the claimant seems to think that the owner is the designer, though they have no evidence for this.

A protest was held outside the court in support for “Grechka”.

The article in question accuses the Party of the Regions of using administrative resources to circulate political advertising.  The article contains a number of photographs.