Hromadske was ordered to remove the material about Portnov, the editors do not stop fighting
The Kyiv Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the Pechersk District Court, ordering hromadske to remove the investigation into Andriy Portnov, former deputy head of the administration of Viktor Yanukovych. The editors are not agrees with this decision and intends to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the judge of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, Oleksiy Sokolov, satisfied all of Portnov’s claims. The court ruled that hromadske must refute information from the investigation “How Crimea was squeezed: exclusive records“, remove relevant materials from YouTube, the site and social networks. The editors were also ordered to pay over 170,000 hryvnias for legal assistance to Portnov and over 14,000 hryvnias in court fees.
During the appeal hearing, the representative of hromadske stated that the contested quotes are the subjective judgments of the authors and cannot be considered false facts.
In turn, Portnov’s lawyer, Karina Mikityan, supported the decision of the Pechersk Court, calling it “substantiated and legal.” She stated that there was no evidence that would confirm Portnov’s illegal actions, and added that no criminal proceedings had been initiated against him.
