Cops lose libel case against newspaper

Justice Humphrey Stollmeyer yesterday dismissed a libel action brought by four policemen against the Express newspaper for an award of $600,000 each. In doing so, Justice Stollmeyer warned journalists to be careful about their style of reporting. He said: “Where an article in a newspaper, or a report on radio or television purports to be a report of judicial proceedings,  great care should be taken if the author wishes to introduce other material into the article, whether that material be described as background, narrative, or otherwise.

“If that is done, then great care must be taken to make it plain and obvious that this is what is being done, since a failure to do so may lead to difference of interpretation which does not redound to the benefit of the author or publisher.” The four policemen, Peter Ramdhan, Rommel Morales, Ricardo Matas and Anthony Williams, had sued the newspaper over a story written by Sharon Lee Assang, following a shooting involving the policemen and other men at La Paille, Caroni.

The lawmen’s case was that a report in the newspaper published on January 13, 1998, had suggested that the people killed in the shootout were executed by them. They were represented by attorneys Israel Khan SC, Larry Lalla and Dawn Mohan while the newspaper’s attorneys were Alvin Fitzpatrick SC and Farres Hosein. Khan had asked the court to break with tradition and establish new grounds by awarding the lawmen damages in the sums of $600,000 each. The policemen were also ordered to pay costs.