Dear Editor,
I am the plaintiff in Rickford Burke v Guyana National Newspapers Limited, Kwame Mc Coy, National Communications Networks Inc, Et, Al: Case No 2013 No. 38/W, Demerara County. This is a libel case in which the defendants, eight media entities and/or practitioners associated with the PPP, maliciously slandered, defamed and libelled me.
My lawsuit has inexplicably been in continuance in the Supreme Court for five years, notwithstanding several letters and submissions to then Chief Justice (ag) Mr Ian Chang, from me and my counsel, Mr Nigel Hughes, for a trial date. The matter has been left to languish in a state of dormancy, for no judicial reason.
My case has been impeded, notwithstanding the straightforward, indisputable facts and circumstances. Between January 29, 2013 and February 1, 2013, and thereafter, the defendants, knowingly published and/or broadcast flagrantly false, malicious and defamatory information about me. Upon the direction of my counsel, the Guyana Chronicle newspaper and National Communications Network subsequently retracted their false stories and apologized to me. The other defendants refused.
The Chronicle’s retraction and apology were nugatory, as the newspaper refused to remove its libellous article from its website, causing it to be republished by media in the Caribbean region and the United States. This article, which is globally accessible, remains published on the Chronicle’s website as of today, in defiance of repeated demands from my counsel for its removal. Moreover, it remains published although a presiding judge in 2013 inquired of the raison d’être for its continued publication.
The libellous publication achieved its intended consequence. I was smeared and defamed. My character and professional reputation suffered irreparable harm. I was forced to defend my good name and reputation as well as correct the record in publications in Guyana, throughout the Caribbean and in the United States.
Despite such incontestable evidence, I have been denied my day in court, justice and my constitutional right to judicial remedies. The practical effect of the unfathomable five-year delay in my lawsuit, is a perversion of the course of justice and the constitution.
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. admonished us that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
I have the patience of a saint. I await my day in court!
Yours faithfully,
Rickford Burke
Plaintiff
