High Court awards K50m to former Agriculture Minister Chaponda as defamation compensation against Times Group

George Chaponda

* This is against the K350 million which Chaponda had demanded while the Times Group proposed that K5 million would be adequate

* After the media house had denied during the court case and asked proof of defamation

* Maintaining that the Maize-gate reports were published for the national interest and in pursuit of media freedom

By Duncan Mlanjira

Following the judgement made by High Court Judge, Justice Dingiswayo Madise on February 22, 2022 — in which he ruled that Times Group defamed former Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation & Water Development, George Chaponda when the newspapers reported on the maize saga of 2016 — the Civil Division’s Principal Registry has ordered that the politician be compensated with K50 million.

This is against the K350 million which Chaponda had demanded while the Times Group proposed that K5 million would be adequate as compensation after the media house had denied during the court case and asked proof of defamation as the Maize-gate reports were published for the national interest and in pursuit of media freedom on public information of public interest.

Thus Times Group — publishers of The Daily Times, Malawi News and The Sunday Times — denied that the reports were meant to damage, injure and discredit Chaponda’s character and reputation.

In the ruling last year, Justice Madise directed the Registry that the damages awarded should not be huge which will end up bankrupting the media house since responsible media freedom is necessary in a democracy as it calls on public servants to account and the media must be protected by the law and the courts.

And taking cognizance that the value of Malawi Kwacha keeps on declining — having considered that Chaponda proposed compensation of K350 million while the defendant proposed that K5 million would be adequate — Deputy Registrar I.M. Nebi determined that “all else taken into consideration, the Court forms the view that a sum of K50 million would be adequate” as compensation for Chaponda and it has been “accordingly awarded to him”.

Nebi emphasised what Justice Madise determined that the said articles “were published in the context of fraud, corruption and mismanagement of funds in the procurement of maize by the government through ADMARC between April and October 2016…allegations that aroused public interest”.

Chaponda went to court soon after the Times Group newspapers wrote a series of reports and editorial comments in December 2016, which the Mulanje South West Parliamentarian claimed the newspapers “launched a coordinated defamatory, libelous and injurious barrage of publications”.

In his judgement, Justice Madise said having looked at the evidence for and against he found that the Times Group publications “went overboard in their quest to inform the public” and that “their freedom as a media house injured Chaponda’s name in the eyes of right thinking members of the society”.

He judged that the newspapers embarked on publications that violated Chaponda’s character and that “the civil law must remedy this assault”.

“Commenting on issues of public interest does not involve injuring the integrity of other people,” said the judgement. “When commenting on issues of public interest, vis-a-vis public officials, the defence of qualified privilege or fair comment can only be invoked where there is some truth in the story.

“However, that not withstanding, the defendants herein had a duty to balance the interests of the public to receive information and the rights of the claimant not to be unjustly ridiculed. No one should injure the reputation of other people under the guise of fair comment and media freedom.

“I, therefore, find that the reference to the claimant as the seat of Satan’s residence; the epitome of decadence; rotten than a brutal savage; such a person if followed, his followers are idiots — to be defamatory on the face of it.

“I, therefore, order the defendants who authored those articles, if still in employment to withdraw the said articles sincerely to the claimant on the front pages of all the pages involved, in this case within 10 days [from February 28].”

However, Madise took cognizance that the other defendants in the case were no longer with Times Group that include George Kasakula (former editor-in-chief); Innocent Chitosi (former editor of The Daily Times); Chachacha Munthali (former editor of the Sunday Times) and Madalitso Musa.

Madise ruled that the front pages of the papers “must not carry any other article apart from the apology as ordered. The claimant is entitled to monetary damages and I order the Registrar to access damages taking into account the apology that the defendant will make”.

The articles arose when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) instituted criminal proceedings against Chaponda, alongside businessman Rashid Tayib, and were reported by several other media houses.

Due to all series of the reports, Chaponda contended that his colleagues and members of society — both local and international — questioned if indeed he had stolen money and that his family suffered irreparable reputational damage which received numerous queries from South Africa including journalists at South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

He also claimed that several charities in the UK, who expressed interest to work with his family members on social and community projects in Malawi, pulled out after the negative media coverage.

He also said the reports widely circulated throughout the United Nations system where he was formally a respected member of staff at UNHCR and thus damaged his reputation at the UN had been “damaged after a long and distinguished career as public service”.

He was also removed as Leader of the House and was subsequently removed as Minister since the President Peter Mutharika “was compelled to do so from the nature of reporting that was being generated”.