AP protests ruling against reporter over Chernobyl story

«The AP con­tin­ues to dis­agree with the deci­sion of the Belarus eco­nom­ic court and will not accept as truth­ful the state­ments that Mr. Kar­manau is being ordered to deliv­er,» said Ian Phillips, the AP’s vice pres­i­dent for inter­na­tion­al news. «AP unre­served­ly stands behind Mr. Kar­manau and the accu­ra­cy of his report­ing.»

The April 25, 2016, sto­ry exam­ined con­se­quences of the Cher­nobyl nuclear pow­er plant explo­sion in Ukraine 30 years ear­li­er. Radioac­tive fall­out con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed a large swath of Belarus; about 10 per­cent of the coun­try was declared a zone unfit for human habi­ta­tion.

Kar­manau vis­it­ed a dairy farm just out­side that zone and obtained a milk sam­ple. Test­ing by Belarus’s state-run Min­sk Cen­ter of Hygiene and Epi­demi­ol­o­gy found the radioac­tive iso­tope Stron­tium-90 in the milk sam­ple at a con­cen­tra­tion 10 times high­er than Belaru­sian law allows.

The state-con­trolled Milka­vi­ta dairy prod­ucts plant, whose sup­ply chain includes that far­m’s milk, sued Kar­manau on the grounds that his report­ing dam­aged the com­pa­ny’s rep­u­ta­tion. The com­pa­ny did not present evi­dence of the alleged dam­age. Dairy prod­ucts are a major export for the eco­nom­i­cal­ly trou­bled coun­try.

The suit was heard in a low­er court, which denied Kar­manau’s motions to intro­duce evi­dence from the lab­o­ra­to­ry test or show how the sam­ple was col­lect­ed. That court also pre­vent­ed him from call­ing expert wit­ness­es to tes­ti­fy.

He appealed the con­vic­tion to the Supreme Court, which on Thurs­day ruled that he must exe­cute the low­er court’s order. Anoth­er appeal option is pos­si­ble, but such strate­gies are rarely accept­ed.

The rul­ing means Kar­manau must pay Milka­v­i­ta’s court costs and fol­low the low­er court’s direc­tion to write a let­ter to AP man­age­ment in New York say­ing that the lab­o­ra­to­ry test results «do not cor­re­spond with real­i­ty.»

Court Declares Journalist Wrong, Orders to Refute Nuclear Milk Report

Expert Testifies the Radiation Tests Were Incorrect

Dairy Company Sues AP Journalist for Report about Radioactive Milk (Upd)

AP Report about Chernobyl Sparks Denials and Allegations of Provocation