Court dismisses defamation case against Guyana Times filed by Charles Ceres

…Editor, publisher awarded $1M in costs

The High Court has dismissed a defamation claim against the Editor and publisher of Guyana Times, while ordering the Peoples’ Progressive Party General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo to pay $15 million in damages to engineer Charles Ceres over statements made during a 2019 press conference.
In a judgement delivered on Friday, Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln ruled that Guyana Times Editor Tusika Martin and publisher Guyana Times Inc successfully established the defence of statutory qualified privilege in relation to an article reporting on allegations made by Jagdeo concerning the allocation of state lands.
The court found that the publication constituted a fair and accurate report of a public meeting within the meaning of Section 14 of the Defamation Act. The Judge held that there was no evidence of malice and no evidence that Ceres had requested the publication of a statement or correction that was subsequently refused.

As a result, the claim against Martin and Guyana Times Inc was dismissed, and Ceres was ordered to pay the newspaper defendants $1 million in costs.
Guyana Times was represented by attorneys-at-law Devindra Kissoon, Natasha Vieira and Abhimanyu Dev.
The case stemmed from statements made by Jagdeo at a June 27, 2019 press conference in which he alleged that large tracts of state lands had been distributed to persons connected to the then APNU+AFC Administration following the December 2018 no-confidence motion.
During the press conference, Jagdeo named Ceres, the former husband of a Department of Environment employee, and alleged that he had received more than 1200 acres of land in Canje Creek, 112 acres at Bohemia and other parcels of land in strategic locations.
Ceres subsequently filed a defamation claim against Jagdeo, Kaieteur News Editor Adam Harris, National Media and Publishing Company Ltd, Martin, and Guyana Times Inc, contending that the statements suggested he had acquired state lands through corrupt and improper means.
In examining the claim against Jagdeo, the court found that the statements conveyed the meaning that Ceres had conspired with others to acquire state lands through corrupt, illegal or improper conduct.
Justice Corbin-Lincoln ruled that the allegations were defamatory and capable of lowering Ceres in the estimation of right-thinking members of society.
The court further found that Jagdeo’s defences of justification and fair comment were deficient and failed to comply with the requirements of the Civil Procedure Rules. The Judge noted that the pleadings did not identify the specific facts relied upon to establish the truth of the allegations or provide sufficient particulars to support the defences.
The Judge noted that evidence before the court showed that some of the lands referenced by Jagdeo had been approved years earlier, including a Canje Creek allocation approved in 2004.
Consequently, Jagdeo was ordered to pay Ceres $15 million in damages for defamation along with prescribed costs of $2.15 million.
The claim against Kaieteur News and its publisher was also dismissed.
Justice Corbin-Lincoln found that the newspaper’s article, when read as a whole, reported both Jagdeo’s allegations and responses from then Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission Commissioner Trevor Benn, who had refuted the claims and described them as misinformation.
The court concluded that the publication did not have a natural tendency to lower Ceres’ reputation and was therefore not defamatory. Ceres was ordered to pay the Kaieteur News defendants $500,000 in costs.