Saratov speaker sued Telegram

The Zavodskoy District Court of Saratov on Monday partially satisfied the claim of the speaker of the regional Duma, Mikhail Isaev, against Telegram, recognizing the information published in three anonymous channels of the messenger as untrue. Earlier, another court upheld similar claims by Elena Ilgova, rector of the Saratov Law Academy, and another similar claim by State Duma deputy Andrei Vorobyov is under consideration. The lawyer believes that it will be difficult to block the disputed information, and lawsuits are filed rather to prevent its further dissemination in the media.

According to the decision of judge Yulia Tkachenko, posts in the Telegram channels “Our man in the Cheka”, “Mockingjay” and “One grandmother said” were recognized as discrediting the honor and business reputation of the former mayor of Saratov, and now the speaker of the regional duma, Mikhail Isaev. In the first two, one post should be blocked, in the third – two. This was reported in court, specifying that we are not talking about a complete blocking of channels in the messenger.

The statement of claim of Mr. Isaev against Telegram FZ-LLC was registered by the Zavodsky District Court on December 9, 2022. The official representative of the speaker, Tatyana Plusheva, then explained to the media that the lawsuit concerns six Telegram channels: “We are talking about several publications that contain materials that discredit the honor and dignity of Mikhail Isaev. The speaker of the regional duma applied to the court as an individual”. The case was heard in the absence of both the plaintiff and the defendant. The lawyers of the party were also not sent to the trial, so Judge Tkachenko considered the claim on her own in one meeting on January 16.

From the statement of claim read out by her, it followed that, in addition to the three above, Mikhail Isaev also has claims against the channels “Actually”, “Shorohi Kumyski” and “Theater of an Adult Spectator”. According to the applicant, the unreliable information they disseminated related to the information that Mr. Isaev, being the head of Saratov, controlled the activities of the MUSPP Ritual, where some illegal financial transactions were allegedly carried out. In support of the fact that these data defame his honor and dignity, the plaintiff indicated that he had no criminal record, the information presented was not confirmed by the court, which means that the owners of the channels should remove the defamatory information.

Roskomnadzor’s response to the court request, which was also read out by Yulia Tkachenko, says that, in accordance with its regulatory documents, Telegram channels are not distributors of information, Roskomnadzor does not have information about their owners and cannot calculate the latter.

Note that this is the third lawsuit in a month against Telegram channels in the Saratov region. On December 28, 2022, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Saratov satisfied the application of the rector of the Saratov State Law Academy Elena Ilgova to restrict access to information disseminated in the Mockingjay Telegram channel. The contested post stated that 500 rubles were withheld from the students of the academy without prior notice in order to send the money to support the residents of Donbass. In the Saratov media, Mockingjay is associated with journalist Elena Nalimova, but she herself did not confirm to Kommersant her involvement in the channel. The recording in question is still available.

And the Engels District Court received a lawsuit from Saratov State Duma deputy Andrey Vorobyov, who demanded to block several Telegram channels that, in his opinion, disseminate false information that damages his reputation. At first, the court rejected the lawsuit of the deputy due to shortcomings in the documents, but on January 16 the application was resubmitted. What kind of information Mr. Vorobyov asks to be recognized as unreliable is still unknown.

The head of the legal bureau “Argument” Andrey Larin is surprised that the decision on the lawsuit of speaker Isaev was made at the first meeting. “Information may or may not be defamatory, to understand this, an examination is required. In my practice, it has never happened that a decision on a case on the protection of honor and dignity was made on the first day, ”explains the expert. At the same time, he does not consider such a decision a precedent, which will be followed by many similar lawsuits. “This is a common practice: a person asks to recognize some information discrediting his reputation. It is not clear how this will be implemented, I think that no one even notified the head office of Telegram in Dubai about the decision of the Saratov District Court. And only the company itself can block the message. I believe this is being done to recognize the information as defamatory and to protect against its dissemination in other sources, for example, the media,” Mr. Larin believes.

Sergey Petunin, Saratov