Celebrated investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas suffered a hefty blow yesterday, Wednesday, when an Accra High Court ruled against him in a defamation case he brought against outspoken Member of Parliament for the Assin Central Constituency, Kennedy Agyapong.
Anas dragged the vociferous lawmaker to court in 2018 for defamation and demanded GH¢25 million in damages.
But the court in its ruling on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, said the suit lacks merit.
The judge, Justice Eric Baah, also upheld arguments by Mr. Agyapong that Anas is an extortionist and a blackmailer.
“That is not investigative journalism. It is investigative terrorism. It is [an] exercise of indirect political power under the cloak of journalism,” the Justice of the Court of Appeal who was sitting in with additional responsibility as a High Court judge said in his judgment.
Justice Baah ruled that: “The statement of the defendant was substantially factual, and therefore justified. It could not have succeeded in actually defaming the plaintiff. Some of the long list of words made by defendant and tendered as exhibit C were capable of defamatory meanings, but none was proven to have actually defamed the plaintiff.”
“I state in conclusion, that whereas all the statements founded on exhibits
KOA1, KOA2, KOA3 and KOA4 were truthful and factual, thereby sustaining [the] defendant’s defence of justification and fair comment, the statements in plaintiff’s exhibit C; though capable of defamatory meanings, were not proven to have actually defamed the plaintiff. I found the claims of [the] plaintiff meritless. It is hereby dismissed”.
