On August 15, the RA Civil Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Region on the lawsuit of Gagik Ghahramanian, Chief Editor of “Kapanyan Lratu” newspaper, against Samvel Aleksanian, Chief Editor of “Syunyats Yerkir” newspaper. The dispute was caused by an article titled “The Outcast: A Famous Local Harlequin Again Faces the Issue of Self-Esteem”, published in “Syunyats Yerkir” on September 3, 2013. The piece criticized the activity of Gagik Ghahramanian, as the Chief Editor of “Kapanyan Lratu”.
The lawsuit on protection of honor, dignity and business reputation was filed by Gagik Ghahramanian on October 2, and was taken into the court’s consideration on October 3, 2013. The plaintiff demanded public apologies, refutation of defamatory information and compensation of damage in the amount of 3 million AMD (about 5,500 Euros). The hearings on the case began on December 5, 2013. On April 2, 2014 the Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik partially upheld the plaintiff’s claim and obliged Samvel Aleksanian to publish apologies to Gagik Ghahramanian in “Syunyats Yerkir” newspaper and refute the false information in the disputed article. The Court also ordered compensation of damage in the amount of 219,600 AMD (about 400 euros) by Aleksanian in favor of Ghahramanian, out of which 100,000 – for libel, 80,000 – for insult, 30,000 – for attorneys’ fees and 9,600 – for the state duty. The Court rejected the plaintiff’s demand concerning the publishing of refutation also on the website of “Syunyats Yerkir”.
On June 5, Samvel Aleksanian challenged this decision in the Civil Court of Appeal. Hearings of the case began on July 23, and on August 15, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Court of General Jurisdiction.
