(MISA/IFEX) – On Monday November 7, 2005, Justice Kellelo Guni passed a judgment in the High Court of Lesotho against the English-language weekly newspaper “Public Eye”, the largest publication in Lesotho. The ruling, which awarded the plaintiff Lebohang Thotanyana 1.5 million maloti (approx. US$222,000) in damages for alleged defamation, was passed in the absence of […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On Monday November 7, 2005, Justice Kellelo Guni passed a judgment in the High Court of Lesotho against the English-language weekly newspaper “Public Eye”, the largest publication in Lesotho.
The ruling, which awarded the plaintiff Lebohang Thotanyana 1.5 million maloti (approx. US$222,000) in damages for alleged defamation, was passed in the absence of legal and management representatives from the “Public Eye”.
According to the weekly’s editor-in-chief, Bethuel Thai, the newspaper was not aware that there was a case in court that it had to answer. He added that the paper’s legal representative, Karabo Mohau, had also not been made aware of any such case against his clients.
“We have, however, filed papers to indicate that we should be given a fair hearing because we do stand by what we published,” Thai told the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Lesotho.