FORMER PRESIDENT, Donald Ramotar, was, on Friday, awarded $20M in damages after he won his defamation case against the Kaieteur News (KN) and its former Editor-in-Chief, Adam Harris.
The damages in the claim filed by Ramotar through his attorney, C. V. Satram, against KN’s publisher, Glenn Lall and Harris for libel, were handed down by Justice Navindra Singh.
In his lawsuit, Ramotar complained that during June 2019, the KN and Harris, the then Editor-in-Chief, published a series of news articles with words pertaining to him that sullied his reputation.

Kaieteur News and Harris in defence claimed “fair comment”, a common-law defence newspapers worldwide shamelessly hide behind as it guarantees them a certain freedom of expression on matters of public interest, as long as it can be proven that the said expression was not made with any ill will, spite, or intent to harm the offended party.
However, Justice Singh having examined the evidence, found that the newspaper failed to provide documentary or other evidence to prove the veracity of the statements and that in its defence, it had instead outlined several averments with respect to the alleged facts upon which the defence of fair comment is based.

The judge noted that the defendants failed to lead any evidence or establish that the signing of the agreements granting the Petroleum Prospecting Licences were done clandestinely by Ramotar or that the entities that received the Petroleum Prospecting Licences by the agreements were connected to him in any way, much less corruptly.
In assessing the appropriate quantum of damages, the court took into consideration the libellous attack on Ramotar’s personal integrity and professional reputation, and the fact that he was a public figure, serving in an office that essentially handled matters of public concern which made the matter all the more grave.
The court also considered that after the publication of the articles, Ramotar was confronted and publicly humiliated, given that they had been disseminated via the

World Wide Web resulting in the widest possible distribution. The court also noted the fact that the defendants insisted on asserting the truth of the libel by persistence in the defence of justification.
Taking all of the foregoing issues into consideration, the judge, besides awarding damages in the sum of $20M, which includes an assessment of aggravated damages, also awarded the sum of $2.4M as costs.
The court awarded interest on the said award at the rate of six per cent per annum from June 26, 2019 to March 12, 2021 and four per cent per annum thereafter until fully paid.