Int’l Press Institute concerned over plans to sue St Lucian journalist
From Jamaica Observer
VIENNA, Austria (CMC) – The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) says it is concerned about the decision of three high-ranking St Lucia public officials to sue a local radio journalist for defamation.
Last month, National Security Minister Phillip La Corbiniere, said he had started legal proceedings against Timothy Poleon and Radio Caribbean International (RCI) as a prelude to similar action being taken against other media establishments and journalists in St Lucia.
La Corbiniere, speaking on the state-owned Radio St Lucia, said in the last few months he has been severely criticised over a number of matters related to his ministry, but made it clear that his action should not be construed as an attack on press freedom in the country.
IPI Friday expressed “concern over the intent behind the lawsuits”, noting that questions have arisen not only as to which content the officials found objectionable; but also as to why the latter have chosen to sue a broadcaster who read a publicly-available news item without comment and not the regional, United States-headquartered online news site that actually wrote the article.
Poleon, host of the programme “Newsspin” on Radio Caribbean read the article in its entirety on September25, the same day it was published by Caribbean News Now (CNN).
Tourism, Heritage and Creative Industries Minister Lorne Theophilus and Senate President Claudius Francis have also indicated their intention to sue Poleon for defamation.
IPI said that according to the pre-action protocol letters, the attorneys for Theophilus and Francis allege that Poleon had “substantially harmed” their clients’ reputation through “defamatory words, the nature of which are deeply distressing and embarrassing to our client”.
IPI said it had obtained a copy of the letter and that it specified as defamatory a paragraph, among others, in which the article’s author referred to two unnamed “prominent” St Lucia government officials, who the article said had engaged in a particular criminal activity.
The description used could “reasonably lead people” to identify the officials in question, the letter alleges.
“Among other questions, it was not immediately clear why, if the paragraph refers to two government officials, three have announced suits, with possibly more to come.
La Corbiniere, the first to threaten legal action, has never specified publicly which additional content he found offensive,” IPI noted.
It said that the Legal Affairs minister also added recently that “a number of ministers have also instructed their attorneys to begin to take legal action of various kinds,” without going into detail as to the cause for that action.
IPI said that it spoke with CNN editor, Barry Randall, who said “he was “completely at a loss to understand what in our original article is remotely actionable – which tends to raise the suspicion of media intimidation pure and simple”.
IPI Press Freedom Manager Barbara Trionfi said “the filing of civil suits, including the sending of pre-action protocol letters, should be used only as a method of redressing legitimate grievances, and never simply as a means of intimidating the media when one dislikes or is offended by their work.
“The St Lucian officials in question should more precisely explain what they view as actionable in the article in question and why – and offer evidence for that view. International standards are clear in requiring public officials to accept a higher degree of scrutiny and criticism as well as a higher burden of proof when filing civil defamation suits.
“IPI is concerned that the decision to target Mr Poleon and Radio Caribbean for legal action may be designed to intimidate local Saint Lucian media in particular from covering controversial topics, including by not carrying international content in the public interest,” Trionfi added.
Timothy Poleon (Photo: CMC)
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