(CJES/IFEX) – The Moscow Chertanovsky Court has ordered the editor of the Russian edition of “Forbes” magazine, Maksim Kashulinsky, to pay a company, Inteko, 109,165 rubles (approx. US$4,186) for “non-material damages done as a result of dissemination of untrue and defamatory information”, reports NEWSRU.COM. The damages granted represented one ruble for every copy disseminated of […]
(CJES/IFEX) – The Moscow Chertanovsky Court has ordered the editor of the Russian edition of “Forbes” magazine, Maksim Kashulinsky, to pay a company, Inteko, 109,165 rubles (approx. US$4,186) for “non-material damages done as a result of dissemination of untrue and defamatory information”, reports NEWSRU.COM.
The damages granted represented one ruble for every copy disseminated of the December 2006 edition of “Forbes” magazine, which carried an article on Inteko owner Yelena Baturina. Inteko press officer Gennady Terebkov told the court that the article contained “incorrect facts, giving readers a negative idea of the company,” as well as claims that the company obtains support from public bodies.
“Forbes” was sued after it refused to divulge “what documents or other information carriers were the foundation for the publication of untrue information” on Baturina and Inteko. Baturina is also the wife of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
The second suit was filed personally against Kashulinsky, for having accused Inteko of “violating media legislation, which prohibits censorship”, in an interview.
The scandal began when the Russian edition of “Forbes” magazine prepared an article on Baturina for inclusion in its December 2006 edition. Before it was circulated, Baturina threatened to file a suit over the phrase “I am guaranteed protection” on the front cover. The management of the publishing house Axel Springer Russia wanted to destroy the entire edition, but it finally was published after the editor-in-chief threatened to resign and the US arm of “Forbes” intervened. As a compromise, the magazine’s cover was changed. The plaintiff found the phrase to be ambiguous as the readers might have inferred from it that her business was being protected by her husband, the Moscow mayor. Her actual words were: “I, as any investor, am guaranteed the protection of my rights”. The revised cover read: “I, as any investor, am guaranteed the protection of my rights”.
Alexander Dobrovinsky, a lawyer for Axel Springer, said the court did not let him prove Kashulinsky’s innocence, refusing to listen to evidence given by two witnesses in the case – Axel Springer Director Regina von Flemming and the magazine’s secretary, Peter Krueger.
The lawyer was not surprised that the court refused to listen to the key witnesses. “It is obvious that Inteko scares Moscow judges to death. We were ready for such an outcome and it was not surprising,” he told “Gazeta”.
“Gazeta” also reported that Inteko has never lost a lawsuit in Moscow.
Dobrovinsky Axel Springer will file an appeal. “We are ready to go as high as the Strasbourg court,” he said.
