The profanity of some district politicians at the meetings of the Klaipėda District Municipal Council of the previous term and the demonstration of the cartoons on Facebook did not pass without consequences: the clarification of the relationship moved to the Klaipėda District Court.
Controversy: opinion or fact
February 22 at a public court session, a civil case was examined in the order of oral proceedings, according to the claim of the plaintiff, Klaipėda District Municipality Administration Director Sigitas Karbauskas, against two defendants – former member of the District Council, now MP Rasa Petrauskienei and former Council member Alfred Šiaulis, regarding the obligation to deny published data that humiliates honor and dignity and does not correspond to reality , as well as awarding compensation for non-pecuniary damage caused by the dissemination of such data.
The court noted that the main issue in the dispute between the parties is how the published “anti-state” and “pro-Russian” statements should be evaluated. Should the published statements be qualified as an expressed opinion or as a disseminated message.
The court noted that certain specified circumstances confirm that the dispute in question arose between members of different political parties operating in the Klaipėda region.
The court partially satisfied the claims of S. Karbauskas: no compensation for property damage was awarded, and only A. Šaulis, who was obliged to publicly deny the untrue statement, was recognized for deliberately spreading the untrue statement.
He applied for a reduced honor
S. Karbauskas formulated several demands in his lawsuit. He asked the court to recognize that in 2022 September 6 R. Petrauskienė, a member of the Klaipėda District Municipality Council, who published the message “Morning Exercise” on the social network Facebook account, in which she depicts an episode of the Soviet era and a chubby person and calls for finding three differences with the Klaipėda District Municipality Administration Director S. Karbauskas, openly and insultingly mocked him appearance and invited others to do the same. Acknowledge that on 10/22/2022 at 3:58 p.m. in the profile of her social website www.facebook.com she posted statements about the fact that “currently the administration is headed by a completely anti-state and, in my opinion, pro-Russian character. I am surprised that until now the security services are not interested in his actions.” The plaintiff also stated that the politician deliberately made false and untrue statements about S. Karbauskas at the Klaipėda District Municipal Council meeting held on 10/27/2022, about the fact that “she cannot vote for the agenda, which was drawn up by the administration that violated the state and the name of the district” director”, does not correspond to reality and humiliates the honor and dignity of S. Karbauskas.
In the lawsuit, S. Karbauskas demanded to admit that A. Šiaulys deliberately made a false and untrue statement about S. Karbauskas at the Klaipėda District Municipal Council meeting held on 27/10/2022, i.e. i.e. by calling him an “anti-stateman”, he humiliated the latter’s honor and dignity.
The director of administration also asked the court to oblige the conservative R. Petrauskienė to publish a statement of the appropriate content, that the statements she made do not correspond to reality and humiliate the honor and dignity of S. Karbauskas in the newspaper “Gargždų banga” and on her personal Facebook account. He made a similar claim to A. Šiaulis, a former member of the District Council, as well as a conservative.
S. Karbauskas asked both defendants to jointly and severally award 1,000 EUR in non-pecuniary damage – this money would allegedly be transferred to the Gargžda Children and Youth Leisure Center. He also asked the court to award legal costs.
Jokes about looks didn’t hurt
Attorney Tomas Šedbaras, the representative of the defendants R. Petrauskienė and A. Šiaulis, also submitted to the court a response to the lawsuit, in which he asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed and the costs of the litigation to be awarded. In his response, the lawyer emphasized that all the stated statements are not data or facts about S. Karbauskas, but opinions, descriptions of his performance assessment, which have a factual basis and are said to raise important questions for society. And the post with the cartoon on Facebook is not the subject of such a case. In the feedback, it was reminded that S. Karbauskas actively participated in the activities of the Family Movement, publicly expressed his support for it, and the activities of this movement are said to be pro-Russian as well – the opinions of various individuals have been published about this, and investigations are being conducted.
S. Karbauskas noted to the court that he is not offended by the jokes made about his appearance. The plaintiff stated that the residents of Klaipėda region recognize him by his nickname “Shrek”, that is, as the hero of an animated film. He confirmed that the cartoon distributed by R. Petrauskienė, which depicts a bust of Lenin and a person similar to him, who has a belly and is sitting slumped, did not offend him. S. Karbauskas emphasized that the biggest insult was the fact that the defendants publicly called him “anti-state”, “pro-Russian” during the Municipal Council meeting. He claimed that the defendants sought to publicly humiliate him by their behavior. The defendants did not apologize to him until the end of the trial.
In the decision, the court noted that no official evidence was presented during the trial to confirm S. Karbauskas’ hostile attitude towards the state. At the court hearing, the plaintiff explained that he, as the director of the Klaipėda district municipality administration, has the right to work with confidential information. He realizes that this right has been entrusted to him by the state, taking into account his loyalty to the Republic of Lithuania, his personal, professional and patriotic qualities. The plaintiff indicated that the law enforcement institutions of the Republic of Lithuania or the state security services never made any comments to him regarding his disloyalty to the Republic of Lithuania or its order. No research has ever been done on this.
Recognized as the subjective opinion of a politician
Mantas Ūs, the judge of the Klaipėda district court of the Klaipėda district court who examined the civil case, stated that the claim of S. Karbauskas is partially acceptable. The court explained that since the lawsuit was brought only for the defense of honor and dignity, the Facebook post with the cartoon was outside the scope of this case.
The court also noted that no evidence was presented during the trial to confirm that R. Petrauskienė wrote the statement “pro-Russian actor” as an indisputable message or fact, and the epithet “anti-state” is an expression of a subjective opinion. The court did not analyze R. Petrauskienė’s speech during the Council meeting, because S. Karbauskas himself admitted that it did not contain the words that insulted him the most.
The court drew attention to the fact that no official evidence was presented during the trial to confirm S. Karbauskas’ hostile attitude towards the state. However, at the Council meeting, A. Šiaulys called S. Karbauskas an anti-state member in an unequivocally understandable manner, without expressing any subjective point of view, so this can be evaluated as a statement of fact, a message that humiliated honor and dignity. The court decision also noted the fact that A. Šiaulys did not react to the reactions expressed by other persons regarding inappropriate behavior during the Council meeting, he behaved quite brazenly, and he did not provide any objective or logical explanations to those around him to justify his behavior.
A. Šiaulias was obliged to publicly apologize
The court ordered A. Šiaulis to publish the following text in the newspaper “Gargždų banga” within 20 calendar days from the entry into force of the decision: “I, Alfredas Šaulys, on October 27, 2022, Klaipėda district. at a meeting of members of the municipal council, in a public place and in the hearing of Klaipėda r. to the mayor of the municipality, members of the Council and other employees of the administration, I deliberately spread an untrue statement about Sigitas Karbauskas, that is, calling him “anti-state”. Such a statement I made does not correspond to reality and humiliates the honor and dignity of S. Karbauskas.”
The court awarded S. Karbauskas from A. Šiaulis EUR 207 in litigation costs. Such a decision of the Klaipėda District Court can be appealed to the Klaipėda District Court within 30 days.
“Banga” info.
Photo by A. VALAIČIOS. and “Banga” archive
#words #politicians #sparrow #feel
– 2024-04-03 01:29:57
