As the Bagnet site reported earlier, in
autumn 2007 the EDAPS Consortium filed a case with the Desnyansky
District Court in Kiev against media company Blitz-Inform, its
offshoot, a newspaper called the Business, and newspaper officials. The
Consortium had to take legal action for slander and defamation
following an article published in the Business.
By the way, besides the lawsuit brought by the Consortium against
Blitz-Inform and the Business, a similar lawsuit was filed by Yuriy
Sidorenko, founder of the Trustcor International Group and Chairman of
the EDAPS Advisory Council. In his claim, Yuri Sidorenko demanded that
allegations made by the Business newspaper are recognized as false. The
plaintiff also asked the newspaper and its publisher to pay for moral
damages of 46 million hryvnas.
On June 12, the Court of first instance satisfied fully plaintiffs'
claims to recognize as false the publications made in the Business and
signed by Birovash and satisfied partially plaintiff's claims regarding
compensation. The Court ordered the Blitz-Inform (owned by Sergey
Melnichuk against whom several criminal cases are pending) to pay 22
million hryvnas.
Legal actions did not go down well with the defendants, in
particular, with the publication's author Maxim Birovash. He used all
plausible pretexts to miss court hearings time and again. One day he
was even caught lying. On the day Birovash did not appear before the
court claiming he was sick, Birovash was found at his desk in the
Business. Of course, such eagerness to follow up on the management
orders can only be welcomed. But is it acceptable for a journalist
claiming to fight for law and order not to give a damn about the law
and judicial system of Ukraine?
Moreover, Birovash resorted to further wild allegations against the
Consortium which won its case in the court of first instance. When
following a party in the Business newspaper, a drunk Birovash became a
victim of muggers he alleged that mugging was directly related to his
professional activities. What was a commonplace robbery he saw as the
'conspiracy' and the 'instigation' of the EDAPS Consortium and the
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (MIA). Birovash further alleged
that some important papers evidencing wrongdoings of the MIA and EDAPS
have been taken away. However, this lie of Birovash was quickly
disproved when the muggers were detained shortly after the incident.
On the day following loud accusations by Birovash, the MIA
officials made official statements in the mass media clarifying that
the crime against Birovash had nothing to do with his professional
activities. Assailants testified that they mugged Birovash seeing the
drunk man as an easy prey. One of the muggers had a prior conviction
for such a crime. On top of everything else it was also established
that whilst filing a formal complaint with the police, Birovash listed
only personal affects among the stolen items: mobile phones, jacket,
money, etc. He never mentioned missing any documents in the police
report.
The other day Birovash's unscrupulousness was reconfirmed. On July
15, there was a scheduled court hearing in the Consortium's lawsuit
against the Blitz-Inform. Following a tradition, Birovash failed to
turn up. According to the EDAPS Press office, in answering question of
the judge about the whereabouts of Birovash, Y. Dombrovsky,
representative of Blitz-inform, stated that Birovash had mailed his
resignation to the Business. According to Dombrovsky's statement to the
court, in response to phone calls about the failure of Birovash to come
to court the latter replied that he would not come and that he was
"...fed up with everything".
But what about the 'principled' position of Birovash who screamed
that he was conducting high-profile investigations? Why did he refuse
to defend his opinion before the court? Apparently, the journalist got
fed up with the topic, resigned and left the newspaper to its own
devices... The colors of young Ukrainian bourgeoisie were nicely used,
abused and left at that. As it is, several criminal cases are pending
against Sergey Melnichuk, owner of the Business newspaper, and on top
of that there are libel and defamation lawsuits by the Consortium
EDAPS.
According to some insiders, Birovash and those who covered his
tracks inside the Business are running out of money they received for
printing the defamatory article. So now, what's the point of dragging
one's heels through the courts?
However, this time it seems Birovash cannot get off. According to
the EDAPS Press office, the Judge of the Desnyansky District Court in
Kiev ordered the Consortium to publish in the Uryadovy Kur'er newspaper
summons ordering Maxim Birovash to appear at the court hearing at 10
a.m. on August, 19, 2008. I guess our colleagues-journalists should
come to the hearing and listen to replies of such a 'principled'
journalist!
Semen Borshchev
Source: http://www.ukranews.com/eng
