Maravi

Rupiah seeks injunction against The Post

Rupiah seeks injunction against The Post
By Chansa Kabwela and Bivan Saluseki
Sunday September 28, 2008 [04:00]

RUPIAH Banda is a desperate old man resorting to desperate measures which he does not even understand, responded Post editor Fred M'membe to the Vice-President's injunction to restrain him and The Post from publishing defamatory editorial comments against him.

M'membe said the injunction which Vice-President Banda had obtained was the simplest for The Post to obey because it restrained the newspaper from publishing any libellous words against the Vice-President.

M'membe said The Post has never published anything libellous to Vice-President Banda.
"And this being the case, the injunction amounts to nothing because it allows us to continue to publish everything that is true, although unpleasant to Mr Banda. We will only be found to have disobeyed this injunction order if we publish anything that is libellous to Mr Banda and this is a matter that has to be proved by facts or evidence in trial. It is not a matter that can be determined without trial," M'membe said. "For us everything continues on the same basis and we will publish everything that is truthful and that falls within the ambit of fair comment on Mr Banda. And in this way we will obey the injunction order."

M'membe said if Vice-President Banda thinks that he will escape public scrutiny through The Post by this action, he was cheating himself because that is not the way things stand in issues of libel.

He said there was no way the injunction could stop The Post from writing editorial comments on Vice-President Banda and his campaign.

"There is no way this action will stop us from writing editorial comments on him and his campaign - not in this country. He should go to some other fascist country with draconian laws, not here in Zambia. He should go to Zimbabwe where he was born where, maybe, such actions can be entertained. If he thinks the law in Zambia will protect him from honest criticism, he is cheating himself and whoever is giving him this advice is also cheating him," he said.

M'membe said Vice-President Banda could only survive such criticism through conducting a clean campaign.

"The only way he can survive such criticism is to conduct a clean and honest campaign and stop dishing out sugar and mealie meal like a 'sugar daddy' to the electorate. We have never seen this type of foolishness and misguided libel action," M'membe said. “This is really desperation of the highest order. Mr Banda is cheating himself.”

Vice-President Banda is seeking to obtain an injunction restraining The Post from publishing or allowing publication of libellous words against him.
According to ex-parte summons for interlocutory injunction taken out by Christopher Mundia on behalf of Vice-President Banda, he wants The Post restrained from publishing the running editorial comments defamatory to the plaintiff namely that he is a crook, a criminal, unreliable,
untrustworthy or words to the like effects or publishing words to the effect that he is not a person who is trustworthy to he elected President.
"The defendant should further be restrained from publishing or further publishing or permitting or causing to be published the same and/or similar articles against the plaintiff until after the trial of this action or until further order," read the summons.

Vice-President Banda stated in his affidavit that The Post has been publishing a series of libellous statements against him, the basis of which is unfounded as he had never been at any time a criminal, a crook, dishonest or a Judas Iscariot among other descriptions.

He stated that the running libellous statements against him were actuated by malice and intended to destroy his well-earned public service record and disadvantage him in the elections for totally unexplained reasons.
Vice-President Banda stated that the allegations contained in the running editorials were extremely damaging to his reputation and were likely to cause him irreparable harm if the publications continued unabated particularly during the campaigns ahead of the elections.

"That the running defamatory publication against me by the defendant run counter to the ethics and tenets of freedom of speech as there are totally extravagant, malicious and total disregard for my own rights," he stated.
Vice-President Banda stated that he believed in the concept of a free press but also believed that his rights were to be protected by the court to balance the situation.

"That this is completely and utterly untrue to state or suggest either expressly or impliedly or by innuendos that I have committed crimes or being in any way associated in the commission of any crimes, plunder of the national resources, or in any manner or at all as alleged by the defendant in its malicious and unjustified running publications," he stated.

And Mundia stated in a certificate of urgency that: " I Christopher Lubasi Mundia, SC do hereby certify that the determination of this matter is of extreme urgency as the defendant has been and continue to maliciously publish, circulate and distribute the libellous opinions and stories in its paper within and outside Zambia to the detriment of the plaintiff as a distinguished and successful public servant in general and in particular as a front runner presidential candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections set for 30th October 2008."
The matter is supposed to be heard inter partes on October 3, 2008.

Labels: FRED M'MEMBE, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 6:48 AM