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Fico Triumphs in Libel Dispute against Plus 7 Dni Publisher
Tuesday 06 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, April 6 (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday triumphed during the protracted civil proceedings before Bratislava District 4 court involving Plus 7 Dni weekly publisher, Seven Plus s.r.o., court officials report.
The district court ordered Seven Plus s.r.o. to pay €66,387 in damages to Fico over an article entitled Kamuflaz (Camouflage) three years ago, saying that premier called reporters who had photographed his new car 'dirty scumbags'. Fico has strenuously denied ever having used such utterances or having met the trial witnesses.
On Tuesday the district court reconfirmed its March 20, 2008 judgement awarding the €66,387 to Fico after it had been quashed by the appellate Regional Court on May 26, 2009. The regional appeal court ruled that Fico had failed to prove the defamatory nature of the article.
However, in late May 2009 the regional court did uphold that section of the district court judgement of 2008 which forced Plus Seven to apologise to Fico, saying that the magazine's reporters-witnesses failed to prove that the utterance was aimed at the reporters photographing Fico's new car. Fico's personal rights therefore were violated by the publication of false information.
Tuesday's ruling, reaffirming the libellous nature of the article, may again be appealed.
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