Did The Belize Times defame Lois Young Barrow when it ran an full page ad calling her three nasty names? Yes, and decisively so. That's what Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh said today in a lengthy judgment that took an hour to deliver. He said that the ad was unwarranted, undeserving and unfounded and fell well outside the bounds of fair comment on a private citizen. He found it plainly defamatory and said there was nothing remotely redeeming about it because all of its claims were entirely false. The ad libeled and defamed young-barrow, and because of that he awarded her thirty thousand dollars in damages, and ten thousand dollars in cost to her attorney, Dean Barrow.
Leaving the courtroom this morning, Young-Barrow told us that she is gratified for the judgement, and that the forty grand ought to be a costly lesson to The Times.
Lois Young,
"I am grateful that I was vindicated and I am glad I had a good attorney and I think that the judgment will go down on record and I feel good about it."
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
It is a fairly large award, is that a vindication for you?
Lois Young,
"I think that the judgment itself, where the Chief Justice scolded the Belize Times and its publisher and said that the libel was totally, totally unjustified and totally untrue and instead they should be complementing me and praising me for the stand I took at the BTL AGM rather than heaping this vitriol on me, is enough. Now the damages are also good because people feel it in their pockets and the Belize Times and its editor will now feel it in their pockets and that is what counts with them."
Jules Vasquez,
Have we crossed a threshold hold here that certain people are untouchable, you can't say certain things about certain people?
Lois Young,
"Not at all, I think that the freedom of expression under the constitution very clearly says subject to the rights of other people. So because you the freedom of expression, it doesn't mean you have the right to libel and to malign and to humiliate other people in the process. You don't have the freedom of expression to malign other people falsely."
In a telephone interview, attorney for The Times Kareem Musa said that he will be reviewing the judgment with his client to see if they will appeal, particularly with an award that he considers to be, "a bit excessive."
Indeed, it's one of the biggest awards granted for libel in this country - and by our records it ranks as number three. The largest award granted to a single individual is the sixty thousand which was given to then Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel. He had sued principals in the PUP for defamation after he was falsely accused of trying to bribe Marconi Matus. But the single largest award for defamation was seventy thousand plus ten grand more for costs. That was granted in 1998 to SPEAR and Assad Shoman after the Banana Growers Association falsely accused them of instigating murderous plots.
