The Fiji Court of Appeal has ruled that former Minister and Labour parliamentarian, Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi be awarded $50,000 in the form of damages in relation to a defamatory article published by the Fiji Times in 2001.
An earlier High Court judgement in 2007 found the Fiji Times guilty of defaming Vayeshnoi in 5 articles and awarded damages amounting to $30,000.
Fiji Times then appealed the case.
The Appeals Court made up of Justice John Byrne, Justice Sosefo Inoke and Justice William Calanchini today found only one article in the form of a letter to be defamatory but the cost of damages was increased from $30,000 to $50,000.
The defamatory article in the form of a letter published in the Fiji Times Voice of the People Letters Column in 2001 was titled "The Mouth Returns".
The Appeals Court judges say in their judgment, this was the most offensive of all the articles and defamatory in law.
They say they agree with the Judge Jiten Singh who made the High Court ruling that it was an article that was highly insensitive to the plight of people who were held hostage in 2000 with their lives at great risk. He said that it was defamatory in suggesting that the plaintiff, Vayeshnoi was a coward.
However for some of the articles which the Appeals Court ruled that they were not defamatory in law, the court said it has to be remembered that public figures do not live in a cocoon, safely protected from the slings and arrows which the media may see fit at times to fire at them.
The court said this is part and parcel of a public figure's life and he or she must be prepared to accept it or choose another occupation.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
