Katuntu v The Editor in Chief of the Redpepper Newspaper & Another (CIVIL SUIT NO. 301 OF 2014)

Observed later treatment

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

The High Court held that articles published by the Red Pepper Newspaper depicting the plaintiff as pro-homosexuality and associating him with the promotion of homosexuality were defamatory because they lowered his reputation among right-thinking members of society. The court found the publications false and malicious, particularly given their timing during the Anti-Homosexuality Law debate. The plaintiff was awarded UGX 70 million in general damages and UGX 20 million in exemplary damages, with 6% interest, and granted a permanent injunction restraining further defamatory publications.

Outcome

Judgment entered for the plaintiff with damages, injunction, and apology ordered

Facts

The defendants published three articles in the Red Pepper Newspaper in August 2014 with headlines including 'Wealth of Pro Gay MPs Revealed', 'Kadaga, Katuntu Friendship on Edge — Homosexuality is the Main Cause', and 'Uganda's Homo MPs, Tycoons Named'. The plaintiff, a Member of Parliament and senior advocate, contended that these articles depicted him as having attained wealth through being pro-homosexuality, as promoting homosexuality and immorality, and as being a homosexual himself. The articles were published during the period when the Anti-Homosexuality Law was being debated in Uganda. The plaintiff testified that the publications depicted him as associated with promoting homosexuality, a vice abhorred by Ugandan society and his Islamic religion. The defendants admitted publishing the articles but denied they were false, malicious or defamatory, claiming they were misinterpreted.

Issues

1. Whether the publications were defamatory of the Plaintiff?
2. Whether the Plaintiff is entitled to the remedies sought?

Orders

• General damages of UGX 70,000,000 awarded to the plaintiff.
• Exemplary damages of UGX 20,000,000 awarded to the plaintiff.
• Interest at the rate of 6% per annum on both general and exemplary damages from the date of judgment to the date of payment in full.
• The defendants are ordered to publish an apology to the plaintiff in the Red Pepper Newspaper.
• Permanent injunction granted restraining the defendants jointly or severally by themselves, their agents and assignees from publishing further defamatory statements about the plaintiff being a homosexual and/or pro-homosexuality.
• Costs of the suit awarded to the plaintiff.

Rules and key headnotes

Cases cited (8)

• John Patrick Machira v Wangethi Mwangi and anor KLR 532
• A.K. Oils & Fats (U) Ltd v Bidco Uganda Limited (Civil Suit No. 715 of 2005)
• Sim vs Stretch [1936] 2 ALL ER 123 A.C.
• Honourable Justice Peter Onega v John Jaramoji Oloya (Civil Suit No. 114 of 2009)
• Francis Lukooya Mukeome and Another v The Editor in Chief of Bukedde News Paper (Civil Suit No. 351 of 2007)
• Hon. Rebecca Kadaga v Richard Tumusiime & 2 Others (Civil Suit No. 56 of 2013)
• Rtd Chief Justice Samuel William Wako Wambuzi v Editor in Chief Red Pepper Publications Limited & Another (Civil Suit No. 305 of 2015)
• John vs MGN Ltd (1997) Q.B 586

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

• Red Pepper Publications Limited & Another v Wako Wambuzi (Civil Appeal No. 127 of 2018)

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