Finding certain words published by the Kaieteur News (KN) against former Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, to be defamatory, the High Court yesterday awarded him damages to the tune of $18M and $220,000 in costs pertaining to five cases.
Brassington had filed the cases against Kaieteur News in 2014 for damages for libel. The court directed that five of those claims be heard together but they were not consolidated under section 17 of the Defamation Act and were as a result addressed separately.
Brassington through his attorney Timothy Jonas had complained that in 2014 edition, the KN and its then Editor Adam Harris (the defendants), published in the column, “Dem boys seh,” words pertaining to him which defamed his character. One of the columns related to the Marriott Hotel.