The Chișinău Court, Central office, rejected the lawsuit filed by the mayor of Bălți, Alexandr Petkov, against the joint-stock company Moldovagaz. Back in 2022, while still a civic activist, Petkov requested the dissolution of Moldovagaz as a legal entity. He claimed he was exercising his legal right as a minority shareholder, and argued that liquidation would be lawful since the company had accumulated debts amounting to $9.5 billion while supplying gas free of charge to Transnistria.

In November 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice declared inadmissible the appeal submitted by the lawyer of Moldovagaz director Vadim Ceban, in a case concerning defense of honor, dignity, and personal reputation.

Ceban sued Petkov after the latter published an article on the portal omg.md, alleging that the Moldovagaz director had proposed transferring company assets located in Transnistria to Gazprom, in exchange for covering Tiraspol’s gas debt.

By a decision issued on November 18, 2021, the Chișinău Court, Centru office, partially upheld the claim, declaring the following statements false and defamatory:
“Vadim Ceban committed criminal offenses and is harming the state of the Republic of Moldova and its citizens, the gas consumers of the country.”
The court ordered Petkov to publish a retraction. The rest of the claims were dismissed.

Later, the Court of Appeal overturned even the obligation to publish the retraction.

The appellate court noted that the plaintiff failed to prove that the information published on Alexandr Petkov’s Facebook page met the criteria for defamation. Specifically, the material was not defamatory, as the sole purpose of the author was to present reality truthfully, and not to mislead the public with malicious or defamatory content.

Moreover, the court pointed out that the plaintiff did not use Facebook’s available tools to report the content as false or defamatory.

The court also emphasized that the plaintiff is a public figure, as head of Moldovagaz, and therefore naturally attracts public scrutiny.

The Court of Appeal concluded that Ceban must accept strict scrutiny of his words and actions, both by journalists and the public, and as such, must demonstrate a higher level of tolerance.