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Okhtyrka town court (the Sumy oblast) decided to satisfy the claim of Mirgorod mayor Oleksandr Pautov against Viktor Kozoriz, the editor of the opposition newspaper «Mirgorodska Pravda»

15.12.2003   
The newspaper and the journalist are must pay the compensation and to publish the refutation.

23 June 2003. Okhtyrka town court (the Sumy oblast) issued the decision to satisfy the claim of Mirgorod mayor Oleksandr Pautov against Viktor Kozoriz, the editor of the opposition newspaper «Mirgorodska Pravda». In the verdict the court decreased the compensation sum from 50 thousand hryvnas (demanded by the mayor) to 600 hryvnas from the editorial board and 1500 hryvnas from Kozoriz. At the same time the court decided to cancel the seizure of Kozoriz’s flat that had been imposed in March «with the aim to secure the claim». The newspaper is also obliged to publish the refutation. Viktor Kozoriz, who, because of his conflict with the mayor, had, in fact, to move in Kharkov, intends to appeal against the court decision.

The mayor was offended by the publication in the December issue of the newspaper, in which Kozoriz called Pautov «an absolutely untalented manager», who «has rather vague notion of the economic policy and the principles of managing a modern town». The claimant believes that these words, as well as the phrase: «…he does not understand at all, by whom and for what he was elected, and to whom he must serve», inflicted the damage to his honor, dignity and business reputation equivalent to 50 thousand hryvnas.

The Institute of mass information, «Barometr svobody slova», June

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