Ternopil Journalist Loses Court Case Filed by Colony Regarding Publications on Violence Against Prisoners

Ternopil journalist Zhanna Popovych has lost a case in the Ternopil Regional Court of Appeal regarding a lawsuit filed by the Kopychyntsi Correctional Colony No. 112 of the Directorate of the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Punishments for the protection of honour, dignity, and business reputation. The court made the corresponding decision on 7 December. Zhanna Popovych reported this to Telekrytyka (TK).

As Ms. Popovych recounted, the Kopychyntsi Colony sued both her and the “Nomer Odyn” (“Number One”) newspaper, in which her material about the abuse of prisoners in the colony was published. The plaintiff demanded a retraction of the information from the newspaper and an apology and payment of 2,000 hryvnias in moral damages from the journalist. Zhanna Popovych noted that this article also appeared in the “Vechirni Visti” (“Evening News”) publication, which was not mentioned in the lawsuit.

The court of first instance (Ternopil City District Court), presided over by Judge Oleh Vyivanko, dismissed the lawsuit of the Kopychyntsi Colony, which appealed this decision. According to Zhanna Popovych, the appeal was filed one day late, but the court accepted it for consideration.

The journalist states that she cannot understand what guided the court in satisfying the colony’s lawsuit: “The material contained no evaluative judgements; I reported exclusively the accounts of the prisoners.”

As Zhanna Popovych recounted, two former prisoners (one released last year, the second this year), whose comments featured in the publication, were summoned to the prosecutor’s office at their current places of residence in the Lviv and Zakarpattia regions, where they confirmed their words. Then they were summoned to court, where only one of the witnesses arrived. “Moreover, Vasyl Rybchuk from Zakarpattia had four tyres of his car slashed the day after his testimony in court. The second witness (Dmytro Kuhaenko — TK) did not come to court. As it turned out, he was beaten the day before, and his documents and mobile phone were taken. Of course, he did not appeal anywhere. They might say that it is a coincidence,” she said.

According to Ms. Popovych, to confirm the testimonies set out in the article, she had tape recordings of the two ex-prisoners’ stories and copies of 56 complaints from convicts. “In the prosecutor’s office, where I was summoned, they did not take it (the tape recording — TK) into account. When the judge suggested listening to the recordings, the defendants refused, saying they already knew that such things existed.” The court, according to her, “did not interpret in any way” the refusal to take the recordings into account.

Ms. Popovych also referred in court to the experience of a similar case that was heard in the European Court of Human Rights.

Five representatives from the colony attended the hearings. According to the journalist, in court, the plaintiff declared that such publications negatively affect the colony’s reputation. Ms. Popovych also noted that she was accused of accepting payment for the material.

As Zhanna Popovych recounted, the court, having listened to her, advised checking information and writing inquiries to the colony. “How to check it, it is unclear. In the end, I checked the information as best as I could. Those guys provided me with documents that they really did serve their sentences,” she noted.

The court partially satisfied the plaintiff’s demands, refusing to award moral compensation, but satisfying the demand for a retraction of information and an apology. Zhanna Popovych intends to file a cassation appeal.

TK will provide legal commentary on this matter when it receives the written court decision.

“Telekrytyka”