Kaieteur News refuses New GPC gag order offer in NY court case
- ‘Alleged defamatory statements are a matter of public concern’… Judge Kenney
January 13, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source
Samuel Beckerman, the lawyer for the new Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation, on Thursday, approached lawyers for Kaieteur News Inc (KNI) seeking to have the newspaper refrain from publishing anything from the courts about the case.
Mr. Beckerman held the first discussion with Mr. James Sullivan, one of the lawyers representing Kaieteur News. Immediately, Publisher of the newspaper, Glenn Lall objected to any confidentiality clause being applied to the case.
Later Lall said that he could not help but note that anything from the government side, and now even from people closely linked to people in the government, seems to attract a confidentiality clause.
Later, when the lawyers met before a clerk of courts to discuss the way forward, Mr. Beckerman again raised the issue of the confidentiality clause. And again Mr Sullivan made it clear that his clients are not interested in any such clause during the duration of the trial.
On Thursday, too, both sides decided on various disclosures.
New GPC had already submitted to the court a claim as though it had already proved its case.
But in a preliminary ruling, Judge Joan Kenney, pointed out that New GPC argues that it satisfied the elements of libel per se, and that KNI failed to assert the truth of its statements as an affirmative defense, thereby precluding KNI from raising this defense.
But KNI counters that New GPC must satisfy its burden of proving the falsity of the alleged defamatory statements, because KNI is a media defendant that made statements of public concern, and that New GPC fails to make a prima facie showing on this element of its claim.
New GPC submitted the affidavit of its former Corporate Secretary, Paul Stanislaus Braam, who claims that the statements published by KNI are “false, fictitious and misleading.”
Braam claimed that New GPC paid less than the amounts claimed by KNI. He identified specific prices that New GPC allegedly paid for certain pharmaceutical products that are significantly less than the prices paid by the Guyanese government, as reported in KNI’s articles.
The Judge noted, “However, Braam fails to submit any documentary evidence substantiating Braam’s conclusory statements. For instance, New GPC fails to submit invoices, bank statements, or evidence of prevailing market rates for the pharmaceuticals, to support the conclusion that KNI’s statements were false.
“Nor does New GPC make any showing of gross irresponsibility concerning KNI’s published statements,” Judge Kenney noted. “Accordingly, New GPC fails to make a prima facie showing,” she added.
The judge said that the defamatory statements alleged by New GPC do not constitute “mere gossip” and they are not “directed only to a limited, private audience,” which would support the conclusion that they involve a “purely private concern.”
“Rather, the statements involve New GPC’s alleged collusion with the Guyanese government, and the use of “taxpayer” funds to subsidize New GPC’s alleged price-gouging scheme thereby clearly relating to matters of “political, social, or other concern of the community.” The matter dealt “with a subject of public business and concern,” where it involved “ State funds.
“Contrary to New GPC’s assertion, the public concern is not limited to the foreign country of Guyana, as New GPC affirmatively alleges that KNI’s New York publication targets “the Guyanese immigrant community in New York” thereby receiving “public attention because its ramifications will be felt by persons who are not direct participants.” “Thus, as the alleged defamatory statements are a matter of public concern, particularly for Guyanese nationals residing in New York, New GPC was required to make a prima facie showing of gross irresponsibility resulting in a defamatory falsity.”
On Thursday both sides called for disclosures. Kaieteur News is to provide its various sources to support its claim against New GPC.
And New GPC is to supply its various invoices, bank statements, contracts with the Guyana Government and accounts of the various drug transactions it made with the Guyana Government.
These are to be provided by January 20
