Administration employee loses case against journalist

The Rostov Regional Court upheld the appeal of journalist Igor Khoroshilov, who disagreed with the decision of the court of first instance that the videos he posted on YouTube discredited the honor, dignity and business reputation of Svetlana Khromova, an employee of the local administration. This was announced on March 16 by the Media Rights Protection Center.

“The video materials talked about the fact that the plaintiff (Khromova), during the election campaign, as a member of the territorial election commission, distributed United Russia campaign materials in stores. The video contained the phrases: “Svetlana Vlasovna, on what basis are you distributing United Russia’s election products?”, “Svetlana Vlasovna, repent, you will get a discount”, “I think the voters of the Rostov region want to know - on what basis is the secretary of the election commission distributing printing products of "United Russia"? , - human rights activists point out.

At the end of November last year, the Proletarsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don partially satisfied Khromova’s demands: Khoroshilov had to remove controversial videos from the YouTube site and post a refutation with an apology there, as well as pay compensation for moral damages of 25,000 rubles.

On March 14, the Rostov Regional Court considered the complaint and completely overturned the decision of the first instance. “The court settled on the two most important circumstances: the journalist was fulfilling his professional duty, and the topic of his speeches was of public interest,” said Olga Voronova, lawyer of the Center.