High Court dismisses defamation case filed by Enrico Woolford

The High Court has dismissed a defamation claim brought by Journalist Enrico Woolford against Guyana Times Inc.
Justice Peter Hugh delivered the judgement on Thursday, September 18, 2026, in the civil claim filed over a column published on March 18, 2020, titled “Ramsammy’s Ruminations: Caricom, ABCE, Commonwealth, OAS – time for sanctions now, no more patience.”

The court found that the statements complained of, as written by Dr Leslie Ramsammy in his column, were defamatory and that they referred expressly to Woolford. However, the ruling drew a distinction between the first defendant, Ramsammy, and the second defendant, Guyana Times Inc.
According to Justice Hugh, Ramsammy had relied on the defences of fair comment and qualified privilege but failed to establish those defences on the evidence before the court.
In contrast, the court found that Guyana Times Inc successfully established the defence of qualified privilege, resulting in the dismissal of the claim against the newspaper.

“The second-named defendant has successfully established the defence of qualified privilege. Accordingly, the claim against the second-named defendant is dismissed,” the judgement states.
The court’s findings on damages applied to the first defendant, Ramsammy. Justice Hugh awarded Woolford $4 million in general damages and $1 million in aggravated damages, for a total of $5 million.
The Judge also ruled that interest would accrue on the judgement sum at the statutory rate from the date of judgement until payment in full.
Ramsammy was further ordered to publish, within 21 days, an apology and retraction of the statements complained of. The terms are to be agreed upon between the parties or settled by the court. If the parties cannot agree, the matter is to return before the court on October 23, 2026, for determination of the terms.
The court also imposed a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from republishing or causing to be published the words complained of or other words or statements to the same or similar defamatory effect.
Ramsammy was ordered to pay Woolford $250,000 in costs.
However, the judgement separately ordered Woolford to pay $250,000 in costs to Guyana Times Inc, following the dismissal of the claim against the newspaper.
The claim against Times Media Group Inc was also dismissed, with Woolford ordered to pay $250,000 in costs to that defendant. The claim against another defendant, TND, had previously been discontinued by consent.
Guyana Times was represented by attorneys Devindra Kissoon, Natasha Vieira and Abhimanyu Dev of London House Chambers.