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Guyana to decriminalise defamation laws by year end – UNHR report

Jan 31, 2020 News

Defamatory libel remains a criminal offence under Section 113 of the Criminal Offences Act laws of Guyana Cap 8:02.
According to the law, a defamatory libel is matter published without any legal justification or excuse designed to insult the person to whom it is published or calculated to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule.
The defamation laws were designed to hold publishing media instruments and officials responsible for the information they put out. Under the section, in given circumstances, anyone found liable of defamatory libel can face the penalty of a fine along with imprisonment.
The United Nations Human Rights Report (UNHR) has highlighted the fact that the nation has been working to remove defamation from criminal aspect of the laws.
According to the report, the Office of the Prime Minister has been working with the Attorney General Chambers towards the decriminalisation of defamation. Those amendments will be before parliament before the end of 2020.
The report comes ahead of Guyana’s human rights review slated for next at the UN’s office in Geneva.
In its national report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of its third Universal Periodic Review next week in Geneva, the Guyana Government said it will pushing for the decriminalisation of defamation and those amendments will be before parliament before the end of 2020.
The issue has been on Guyana‘s human rights reformation agenda for some time now.
Joined by the International Press Institute, (IPI) media organisations in Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean have supported a call to abolish criminal defamation.
The IPI’s review examined laws that punished “obscene libel” or “offending public morality”, which were found in nine of the 16 countries surveyed.
The IPI noted that in the English-speaking Caribbean, such provisions were usually phrased as banning the publication of obscene content. In the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, for example, offenders risk up to two years in prison. St. Lucia elevates the punishment to five years.
To banish the law, IPI has argued that criminal libel law was born in an Elizabethan England courtroom as a means for silencing critique of the privileged class.
The body said a law of such antiquated ethos, has little place in modern society where the press plays a pivotal role in shaping public discourse.
At present, the law is vague and open to indiscriminate and inconsistent implementation, largely wielded to quell dissent and stifle government criticism, IPI had said.
In fact, the Vienna-based organisation also pointed to the direct threat on criminal defamation has on press freedom. The lobbying team stressed that journalists “should not go to jail for practising their craft.”
“Criminal libel is one of the most pernicious media constraints in contemporary society. Implemented at the will of any insulted public official, it frequently leaves no recourse for the defendant.
“In most countries, truth is not a valid defence, leaving defence a vexing proposition.”
While infrequently used in the Caribbean, criminal libel statutes remain, an unnecessary resource at the disposal of any offended official, IPI said, adding that the mere threat of prosecution chills investigation and free speech, sustains corruption, unnecessarily protects public officials, and denies one of the most basic of human rights, freedom of expression.

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