Zamoskvoretsky Intermunicipal Court of Moscow satisfied the libel suit filed by the Chairman of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky against the Internet Agency of Political News (APN).

The court obliged APN to publish on its website a refutation and confirmed the text. The refutation states that "regarding the repeated publication by the APN web-site on July 25, 2001, of articles "earlier recognised by the Zamoskvoretsky Intermunicipal Court of Moscow as defamatory and false publications against Grigory Yavlinsky, the publishing house of APN once again apologises to Grigory Yavlinsky."

The court also obliged APN to pay RUR 3,000 compensation for moral damage to the plaintiff. As in the past Yavlinsky will send this amount to Orphanage No. 1 of Gorodets city in Nizhni Novgorod.

The court decided to forward to the Ministry of Press, Television, Radio and Mass Communications of the RF its definition of multiple violations of the mass media law and failure by APN to implementation court rulings.

The court ruling came into force in the first ten days of July. APN must implement the decision within 10 days.

This represents the fourth libel suit that Yavlinsky has filed against APN. The defendant failed to fulfil the three previous court rulings in full and on time.

The Internet Agency of Political News was founded as a mass media in October 1999. However, in September at the start of the State Duma election campaign, a month prior to the receipt of a registration certificate from the Ministry of Press, it began spreading libel on Yabloko and its leader. When Yavlinsky initiated the first libel action, the defendant proposed settling the matter peacefully. Yavlinsky agreed to this proposal and the court confirmed the text of the peaceful agreement, whereby APN undertook to publish a refutation at its web-site and apologise to Yavlinsky. However, APN did not implement the conditions of the peaceful agreement and YABLOKO had to force it to publish the refutation and apologise with the help of the bailiff.

During the presidential election campaign of 2000, when Yavlinsky was one of the candidates, APN demonstrated even more activity. After the presidential elections the courts satisfied all the three libel suits filed by Grigory Yavlinsky against APN.

However, the Ministry of Press has not imposed any sanctions against APN, despite its demonstrative violation of the law "On the Mass Media". Maybe the Ministry will react after receiving the court definition.

Obviously the Editor-in-Chief of the APN Evgeni Krasnikov knows whether the APN receives outside orders to spread libel or acts on its own initiative. Under the law "On the Mass Media", the editor-in chief is liable for implementation of the requirements established by the law and other Russian Federation legislative acts for the mass media.

See also:
Freedom of Speech and Media Law in Russia