It was huge news in October when Lois Young Barrow got an injunction restraining The Belize Times from printing an ad that she claimed defamed her. The Prime Minister criticized the Chief Justice decision to grant the injunction; he said it was like muzzling the press. Today, the trial to determine whether it there was libel commenced before Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh. He heard arguments by attorney for The Belize Times Kareem Musa and Dean Barrow for Lois Young Barrow. We got reaction from both attorneys today after their presentations.
Kareem Musa, Attorney for The Belize Times
"Justification and fair comment on a matter of public interest, that was the defense that was tendered."
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Do you that this is going to be good enough to convince the judge that in fact the Belize Times did have justification to publish such, as the complainant claimed, libelous material on her?
Kareem Musa,
"The question isn't whether it is justified because justification means that what we claimed in the article is true
and so that is one of the issues that we raised, that it was true and that it was on a matter of public interest and that is why that defense was proffered."
Alfonso Noble,
Do you that it is going to be convincing?
Kareem Musa,
"I am hopeful that it will be convincing but we will of course expect the worse. We kind of got a feel of how this thing was going from the outset but we must always at all times keep hope alive and I believe that yes, it will be convincing."
Dean Barrow, Attorney for Lois Young
"I think it is pretty much accepted that the claim for libel is made out. The only question is whether the defense raised by the Belize Times can succeed and from what I saw, they don't have a prayer. Of course there is always litigation risk but it seems obvious that the two defenses of justification and comment are non-starters. In my view the only question is the extent of the damages awarded, that the court will make.
Libel is libel and there are factors that the court looks at in determining any award in a particular case so the court will act on the basis of the well-established principles governing an award of damages in a libel matter. I don't think that there is anything that makes this peculiar.
We've shown the court that Mr. Cedric Flowers just got $10,000 in I think February of last year. I don't know how much people had known of that case, he had sued Mr. Kay Menzies and the Belize Port Authority had libeled him and an award of $10,000 was made. So clearly that is the range of awards. I don't think it is such as to make the award to be given here entirely out of whack in terms of any comparison to the Cedric Flowers one. The Cedric Flowers one is the most recent one that I can think of and I think that establishes the kind of guidance that the court is likely to look to."
Chief Justice Conteh reserved judgment until a later date.
