Conflict between an official and an editor was settled without turning to court
Nikolay Suvorov, the head of the directorate in charge of the questions of religion, nationalities and migration of the Kirovograd oblast state administration, expressed his discontent about the article “Do not pull and do not push us” by Valentina Bazhan published in the local newspaper “Russkiy blok” (Nos. 5-6, 2003). N. Suvorov stated that he would hand the claim on the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation against V. Bazhan, the editor of the newspaper.
The editor resorted to the help of the Monitoring center of the freedom of speech. A lawyer of the center analyzed the publication and came to the conclusion that there were no grounds for court persecution of the journalist. In order to settle the conflict, lawyer Yuri Denisov took part in the talk between V. Bazhan and N. Suvorov. The conflicting parties stated their opinions connected with the publication of the odious article.
It appeared during the talk that there were no legal grounds for bringing V. Bazhan to the civil responsibility after Article 7 of the Civil Code of Ukraine. The editor acted in the framework of Article 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees the rights for the freedom of opinions and the freedom of speech, as well as the freedom of expression of views.
As a result, N. Suvorov refused from his complaint against the author of the article, and the conflict was settled without turning to court.
Nina Ptashkina, the Association “Public initiatives»