Party of the Regions fails to close popular Rivne weekly
The Rivne District Administrative Court has rejected a civil suit from the Party of the Regions which demanded that the court prohibit issue of the newspaper “Rivne Vechirnye”.
The suit was prompted by publication in the popular regional weekly newspaper of an article entitled “The Court is the Party of the Regions’ servant” Representatives of the pro-regime political party considered the material to be aimed at forming a negative image of the Party of the Regions and claimed that it also contained knowingly untruthful and defamatory information about the party.
Rivne Vechirnye rejected the claim, and pointed out that the article in question had been published as election campaigning material for the UDAR Party. The article had been paid for in proper fashion from UDAR’s election fund, did not contain untruthful information, but merely expressed critical assessment based on other administrative cases.
The court rejected the application by the Party of the Regions on the grounds that the pro-regime party had not managed to provide any proof that the Law on the Parliamentary Elections had been infringed.
OPORA notes that the newspaper is one of the most popular in the oblast and has a print run of 25 thousand. OPORA has found the newspaper to be without political engagement and says that it cooperates with all parties on a commercial basis.