European Court sides with Russian newspaper in defamation suit

The European Court of Human Rights has sided with another Russian plaintiff. This time, the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta won 3,388 euros (and another 2,170 euros for its correspondent) for violations of its right to self expression in a lawsuit against the newspaper over its coverage of the Kursk submarine disaster, which claimed the lives of 118 Russian sailors in August 2000.

The court found that Russia’s judicial system failed to appreciate the “important role of the free press in democratic society,” assuming a priori that the honor and dignity of the sailors always takes precedence over the right to self expression.

The ECHR’s ruling concerns a 2005 lawsuit by Viktor Kolkutin, then the Defense Ministry’s chief forensic expert, who argued that Novaya Gazeta’s reporting on the Kursk disaster damaged his professional reputation. The newspaper’s articles claims that forensic reports on the killed sailors helped naval officers evade responsibility for botching the rescue operation.