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Communists sue newspaper for libel

The newspaper editor said that rallies of the Communist party were similar to gay parades

ULAN-UDE, July 4 (Itar-Tass) —— A branch department of the Communist party in the Trans-Baikal territory has won a lawsuit against the Chita-based newspaper Vechorka, which in one of its publications said that rallies of the Communist party were similar to gay parades.

The board of the Trans-Baikal territorial court has left unchanged the amount of a compensation for moral damages earlier ordered by an inferior district court which partly satisfied the communists' lawsuit against the newspaper, the press service of the territorial court told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

The newspaper editor-in-chief attempted to appeal the resolution passed by the inferior district court, saying that the newspaper publication was no infringement on the plaintiff's honor, dignity and business reputation, but was a journalist's individual opinion and criticism, which is not banned by the international law.

But the court turned down his arguments, declaring that the individual opinion was expressed in an insulting form. Moreover, the Trans-Baikal territorial court has specified the previous resolution passed by the inferior district court, quoting more allegations published by the newspaper against the leader of the local Communist party branch, Sergei Suturin.

According to the final court resolution, Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Vechorka newspaper Vladimir Pranitsky is to pay 30,000 roubles in moral damages to Sergei Suturin and 50,000 roubles to the territorial committee of the Communist party for comparing CPRF meetings with gay parades.

The court also obliged the newspaper editor-in-chief to publish the court resolution which satisfied the Baikal communists' lawsuit.