For the first time in Kazakhstan, the court stood up for a journalist
Elena Kuznetsova, editor-in-chief of the North Kazakhstan regional newspaper “Kvartal”, will receive almost $2000 as a moral compensation for the illegal sentence.
According to the International Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz”, in the judicial practice of Kazakhstan it is the first time that a journalist has been compensated for moral damage because of illegal sentence.
According to the Fund, in November 2018, the newspaper “Kvartal” published articles on a property dispute between the two companies.
Representatives of one of the parties of this conflict considered these publications slanderous and demanded to hold the editor of the newspaper Kuznetsova responsible for it.
On March 15, 2019, judge Saule Litfullina recognized the plaintiff’s arguments well-grounded and sentenced the chief editor to one year of restriction of freedom with the establishment of probationary control.
However, on June 18, the Appeals college for Criminal Cases of the North-Kazakhstan Regional Court repealed this sentence, not finding the corpus delicti in the actions of Kuznetsova.
Based on the decision of the Appeals instance, the journalist addressed to the court for non-pecuniary damage’s compensation. As a result, the court made a decision in her favor.
“Journalists are accused of libel by everyone who is not lazy. Sometimes it happens that the convictions are later repealed. But this is the first time in Kazakhstan, when a journalist demanded and got compensation for moral damage (nerves, money, professional difficulties caused by an illegal sentence),” the Fund “Adil Soz” accents.
