[2023]DLHC12174 • March 15, 2023 • High Court
ANAS A. ANAS vs. KENNEDY AGYEPONG
The plaintiff, Anas A. Anas, a lawyer and internationally acclaimed investigative journalist, sued the defendant, Kennedy Agyepong, a Member of Parliament and media proprietor, for libel. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant made numerous defamatory statements accusing him of criminal activities including theft, murder, corruption, blackmail, extortion, land grabbing, and bribery, among others, through various media platforms. The defendant denied the allegations, asserting that his statements were true, factual, and fair comments made in the public interest during his anti-corruption campaign.
read moreINTRODUCTION This, no doubt, is a judgment on a mammoth case. It is so by reason firstly of the personalities involved, secondly by the nature of the issues around which the case revolves and thirdly, by reason of the expected wide reach of the accusations of the defendant and the responses by the plaintiff resulting in this suit, ‘’thanks’’ to modern media and communication systems. The plaintiff and defendant are national figures of varied degrees of reputation and popularity. It cannot be doubted that a stain on the reputation of the plaintiff; if the accusations of defendant are untrue, unfair, and unjustified, would have been far reaching. The damage to be caused the credibility and standing of the defendant will also be damning, should it turn out that he made the serious and widespread allegations knowing them to be false, inaccurate, unfair, or unjustified. The plaintiff who identifies himself as a lawyer and ‘’an internationally acclaimed investigative journali...