Latest update October 1st, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 15, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Good sometimes comes from unexpected sources; progress from unexpected places.
The recent swathes of libel actions against this newspaper may serve an important function in reinforcing freedom of expression by reducing the inhibitions that have traditionally been placed before newspapers in their criticisms of public issues.
The judiciary in Guyana is faced with an important opportunity to unshackle some of the restrictions that had previously existed and to bring into being a new progressive era of case law relating to libel and defamation.
Certainly, it will allow our learned jurists to bring Guyana’s case law into sync with some of the more recent decisions concerning libel and defamation – decisions which I believe are healthy from the perspective of enhancing the freedoms of the media in Guyana.
While most newspapers tend to treat with libel actions as bugbears – and some even believe that they can act as a constraint on a newspaper’s right to freely publish its views – Kaieteur News must see in the recent actions which have been leveled against it, a golden opportunity to rewrite in a more progressive way, the libel laws of Guyana.
In the case of Jamaica, the government there did not wait on the Courts. In December 2007, the Jamaican Prime Minister announced that there was going to be review of the libel laws with a view towards reform. A 12-man committee was established and did, as far as I am aware, submit its recommendations to the government for possible areas of reform.
During the course of this process, the Jamaican Information Service made some useful information and research available to the public so as to inform public discourse. My column for today quotes extensively from that publication since I think it holds relevance to Guyana.
Governments in Third World countries are known to be suspicious about the media to the extent that they seek in many instances to curb the freedom of media houses to publish what they please and to ameliorate or reduce criticism of public policy and public officials.
Interestingly, the review ordered by the Jamaican Prime Minister was aimed at the very opposite.
It was, according to the publication, ordered so as to “facilitate greater openness and transparency in governance with a view to empowering the Press to do more investigative journalism. In the Prime Minister’s own words, the decision was made to “review the libel and slander law to ensure that it cannot be used as a firewall to protect wrongdoers.”
The publication went on to note that the view is that a Press which is not shackled by excessive restrictions can better perform its duty as the Fourth Estate protecting the interests of the public and holding the feet of public officials to the fire, as it were. A free and vigorous Press is a crucial component of a modern democracy.
It recalled that Thomas Jefferson had said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a Government without newspapers or newspapers without Government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.”
On another occasion, he wrote that “once they (the people) become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, Congress and Assemblies and Judges and Governors shall all become wolves.”
The said article noted that a House of Lords decision of 2006 now makes it easier for the media to defend themselves against libel.
It referenced the case Jameel versus the Wall Street Journal Europe, whereby the Courts made it clear that if a media can show that a matter is of public interest and a product of responsible journalism, the plaintiff cannot receive damages for libel.
October 1st turn off your lights to bring about a change!
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