Judge orders Express to pay Nizam $250,000 for defamation

File: Justice Gobin

Justice Carol Gobin on Friday ordered the Express newspaper to pay $325,000 to former chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) Nizam Mohammed for defamation Mohammed’s character in an article published on July 23, 2010.

Mohammed claimed the newspaper defamed him based on certain statements made about him in the article.

His attorney, Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein made the point that the Express article seriously injured Mohammed brought him into public scandal, ridicule, odium and contempt and that Mohammed "suffered considerable distress and embarrassment”.

The newspaper story was based on statements made at a People’s National Movement public meeting by former Public Services Association (PSA) president Jennifer Baptiste-Primus.

Hosein acknowledged that the Express had printed a correction stating that Mohammed’s name was never mentioned in the statements made by Baptiste-Primus.

However, he stated that the correction was not given the same prominence as the offending article. "The corrections were not published in a size or location or given a place of prominence similar to that afforded to the defamatory words. The defendants published the corrections in a manner that would not be likely to attract the attention and interest of readers of the newspapers,” Hosein told the court.