On April 14, 2023, a Twitter user under the handle "ebamugavusvalitsus" ("government of inconvenience" – ed.) posted a chart showing the names of individuals who had made the largest donations to the Isamaa party, with Parvel Pruunsild standing out as the biggest contributor at €500,000.

On the same date, Erik Moora commented on the post, writing, "Estonia's biggest political corruption." In response to another user's question about what the alleged corruption entailed, he added: "First of all, it comes with benefits."

On July 11 of the same year, Pruunsild filed a lawsuit with Harju District Court against Moora, seeking a retraction of incorrect information and compensation for non-material damages.

In September last year, the district court dismissed the claim and ordered Pruunsild to cover Moora's legal costs, which totaled €5,833.80. Pruunsild appealed the Harju District Court ruling to the Tallinn Circuit Court.

On Monday, the circuit court partially overturned the lower court's decision and ordered the defendant to pay €500 in damages. The court dismissed the claim seeking a retraction of the statements.

The circuit court ruled that each party would bear its own legal costs.

The Tallinn Circuit Court's ruling has not yet entered into force.

In his initial complaint, Pruunsild argued that the diagram and Moora's accompanying comments attributed to him the commission of some of the largest acts of corruption in Estonia's history, which he said constituted either an inappropriate value judgment or, alternatively, an incorrect statement of fact.

Pruunsild also stated in the claim that Moora had alleged he received benefits from Isamaa in exchange for financial support, which he said was false and damaging to his reputation.

He further noted that the published statements caused him moral harm, as Moora is a well-known and authoritative public figure — a former editor-in-chief of weekly Eesti Ekspress who also presents himself as a political scientist.

For his part, Moora told the court at the time that the context in which the information was published did not allow for the conclusion that Pruunsild could be equated with the Isamaa party. According to Moora, the assessment "Estonia's biggest political corruption" referred to the diagram itself, which illustrated Isamaa's supporters and could not be attributed to Pruunsild personally.

Moora also stated that he had not claimed Pruunsild supported Isamaa in order to receive benefits and that the term "benefit" does not necessarily imply material gain or a corruption offense.

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