TVi journalist sued for “libel” over comments on Facebook

  Anton Yatsenko, a parliamentary candidate, has filed a suit against a journalist from TV Channel TVi Artem Shevcehnko. He alleges that the journalist posted a text with false information about Yatsenko on his Facebook page.

Yatsenko was angered by a posting on 2 September in which the journalist wrote that according to his sources in the central police, “during the night near Uman there was a road accident involving MP and member of the Party of the Regions and parliamentary candidate for the Uman No. 200 electoral district from the Party of the Regions, Artem Yatsenko. He was driving a Mercedes ML500 which hit a Dey Nexia care as the result of which a person was killed. The source reports that MP Yatsenko was inebriated”.

Yatsenko is demanding that the information be found false, that the posting be removed and a text which he would prepare be published refuting it.

An expert assessment determined that Yatsenko had not been in the accident, that his sister had been driving the car while he was elsewhere in Uman.

Shevchenko says that he met with Yatsenko in the Verkhovna Rada and that the latter may be ready for an amicable settlement.  The journalist says that after it was established that Yatsenko had indeed not been in the car, he had written about this on Facebook and apologized for passing on the information on TVi.  He said that perhaps Yatsenko has simply not seen the relevant posting on Facebook.  Shevchenko says that his informant had learned how very quickly Yatsenko was at the scene and concluded that he must have been involved.