In Dagestan, court sustains MIA's claim against "Chernovik" newspaper

The Federal Court of the Leninskiy District of Makhachkala has ruled to partially sustain the claim of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan against the Dagestan weekly "Chernovik" (Blueprint) on defence of business reputation. The newspaper is now obliged to place a refutation and bring apologies.

The pretext for the claim was the article by Biyakai Magomedov entitled "Robots with Shoulder-Straps Are Wanted" (No. 27 of July 4, 2008).

The article quoted prices on various posts, to be paid, according to the author, by candidates who want to get employed in the MIA system.

Thus, the article ran that to take the position of a GIBDD (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate) inspector one should have paid up to 10 thousand US dollars; the position of an inspector at the MIA's Investigatory Department and operative officer at the Division to Fight Economic Crimes had the cost of 10-15 thousand US dollars, and of an employee of the Operative Department - 20-25 thousand US dollars.

At the trial, journalist of "Chernovik" Biyakai Magomedov refused to disclose the name of his source of the published data. To the Judge's question on the basis of what the author could confirm the data presented in the article, he responded that the MIA of Dagestan had refused to give the number of militiamen brought to criminal liability. The Judge said that this data had nothing to do with the character of the publication.

As a result, the court found several paragraphs of the article "Robots with Shoulder-Straps Are Wanted" as having nothing to do with reality. The newspaper shall publish a refutation and apologize.