In a Facebook Post on the 30th of July, 2024, Minister of Education under the PPP/C Government and practicing attorney Hon. Priya Manickchand addressed the challenges News Entities, journalists, and other publishers face in investigating potentially scandalous issues. The Minister advised that while publishers must be cautious in their reporting and follow journalism best practices, persons under scrutiny should leave margin for error and not jump to sue at the earliest possible opportunity.
This statement, although not directly related, comes in the wake of the Guyanese Critic, a popular social media personality, being slapped with several multi-million dollar lawsuits. City businessman, Azzrudin Mohamed, who was recently sanctioned by US Law Enforcement, recently sued the Guyanese Critic for 200 million Guyana dollars. He won, but the court only awarded 54 million. Overseas Guyanese and social media political activist, Rickford Burke, also recently announced that he would be initiating, via his agents in Guyana, a 200-million dollar lawsuit against the Guyanese Critic for defamation.
While libel, cyber crime, and defamation laws have their merits, they are proving problematic, putting too much of a spoke in the wheel of journalists and reporters who now have a million reasons to fear reporting on certain stories. This might in turn pressure law makers to revise applicable laws.
Full Statement by Hon. Priya Manickchand
Pondering…
I’ve had to consider several times whether I want to invite the Courts through suit to consider what damages I should receive for libel of me. I have never sued. I could have several times over. I never did…because I believe fundamentally that someone in public office MUST withstand scrutiny which sometimes can appear harsh.
I believe also that genuine mistakes can be made in the effort to engage in said scrutiny. In effect then, I would rather sacrifice some of my inherent rights not to be libeled for the cultivation of an environment where scrutiny of public officers by the citizenry, in effort to achieve good governance, is not only a right but a duty.
In that light, I believe once the publisher is given a chance to correct the mistake and does, for me that is the end of the matter. I am now forced to reconcile this long held firm view with my own pleasure at the freedoms social media offers but which allow for the ease for subscribers to say and write whatever they want without much effort. No editor. No second eye. No reasoned, impartial review. Equaling too many times, plenty harmful libel.
The question we all have to answer is how do we build out a society that insists on as much factual content as we can get even as we use the new and delightful tools (eg social media) to engage in activities that can be healthy (such as the scrutiny of which I spoke above).
I dont yet know the answer. But I think it will require of all of us that we firstly establish our own boundaries as far as it relates to our own posting/s. That we commit to posting fact instead of twists or spins or fiction, accurate information instead of sensational gossip, etc and it will require of all of us the will to reject the temptation to believe with ease and without inquiry everything we see “published.”
Still pondering… will let you know if I reconcile my views. All my love…
