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Editor in Chief & Printing, Publishing Company New Vision v Sekandi & Anor (Civil Appeal No. 33 of 2011)

High Court · [2013] UGHCCD 16 · 2013 Appeal Allowed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Civil appeal from Chief Magistrate's Court judgment awarding damages for defamation
Decision
Trial court's judgment and decree awarding damages for defamation set aside; appellants discharged of liability

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The High Court allowed the appeal and set aside the trial court's award of damages for defamation. The court held that the defence of justification was available to the appellants because the published article was factually accurate and substantially true. The respondents had indeed been arrested and detained on suspicion of stealing a cow, and the article accurately reported those events. The timing of publication after the respondents' release and subsequent exoneration did not change the substance of what was reported, and the reporter had attempted to obtain the respondents' comments. Truth is a complete defence to defamation even where the defendant acted with ill will.

Outcome

Trial court's judgment and decree awarding damages for defamation set aside; appellants discharged of liability

Facts

The respondents filed suit in the Chief Magistrate's Court seeking damages for defamation arising from an article published in Bukedde Newspaper on 8 April 2006. The article, published in Luganda, reported that two young men (the respondents) had been caught by police attempting to steal a cow that was in police custody at Mityana Police Station. The respondents had in fact been arrested on 23 March 2006 on suspicion of stealing a cow and detained at Mityana Police Station. They were subsequently released on the same day. Police investigations later revealed that the cow belonged to the first respondent. The trial Magistrate found the publication defamatory and held that the defence of justification was not available because the publication was made two weeks after the respondents' release and after their exoneration, which the Magistrate deemed malicious. The trial court awarded general damages of UGX 7,000,000 to the first respondent and UGX 5,000,000 to the second respondent, plus interest at 10% from the date of the cause of action. The appellants appealed, contending that the article was substantially true and that the defence of justification was available.

Issues

  1. Whether the publication was defamatory of the plaintiffs/respondents.
  2. Whether the defence of justification was available to the defendants/appellants.
  3. Whether the learned trial Magistrate properly evaluated the evidence and correctly applied the law.
  4. Whether the trial Magistrate correctly exercised her discretion in awarding damages and interest.

Orders

  • Appeal allowed.
  • Costs awarded to the appellants in the High Court and in the Court below.

Rules and key headnotes

Defamation — Defence of Justification — Standard of Proof
To successfully plead the defence of justification in a defamation action, the defendant need not show that the defamatory statement is precisely true in every particular; what matters is whether it is substantially true. The defendant must prove that the content of the statement was true, not merely that a statement to that effect was made by another person.
Defamation — Defence of Justification — Truth as Complete Defence
Truth is a complete defence to an action for defamation even if the defendant was actuated by ill will or spite. If a defamatory statement is substantially true, the fact that it lowers the claimant's reputation merely shows that the reputation has been reduced to its proper level.
Defamation — Publication — Timing and Subsequent Events
Where a publication accurately reports events that occurred (such as an arrest and detention), the defence of justification is not defeated merely because the publication was made after subsequent events (such as the suspect's release or exoneration) that were not part of the subject matter of the article. The timing of publication does not change the substantial truth of the events actually reported.
Defamation — Elements — Falsity
A statement does not give rise to a cause of action for defamation against its publishers merely because it causes damage to the plaintiff. The statement must be false and must be defamatory, that is, it must lower the plaintiff in the estimation of a reasonable reader who has knowledge of such facts as the reader might reasonably be expected to possess.
Appeals — First Appellate Court — Duty to Re-evaluate Evidence
It is the duty of the first appellate court to re-evaluate the evidence on record for itself in order to determine whether the conclusion reached by the trial court should stand. Where the trial court's conclusion has been arrived at on conflicting testimony after seeing and hearing witnesses, the appellate court must bear in mind that it has not enjoyed this opportunity and the trial court's view as to where credibility lies is entitled to great weight.

Cases cited (7)

  • Peters v Sunday Post Limited [1958] EA 424
  • Astaire v Campling [1966] 1 WLR 34
  • Shah v New Africa Press Ltd (High Court Civil Suit No. 221 of 1968)
  • Lewis v Daily Telegraph Ltd [1964] AC 234
  • Harold Barter v Battomelly [1908] 2 KB 151
  • Lugayizzi v Ssezi Cheeye & Anor (2001-2005) 2 HCB 114
  • Nekemia Matembe & Anor v Teddy Ssezi Cheeye & Anor (High Court Civil Suit No. 1047 of 1995)

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Editor in Chief & Printing, Publishing Company New Vision v Sekandi & Anor (Civil Appeal No. 33 of 2011) [2013] UGHCCD 16 (1 February 2013)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.