All Eyes on the Judiciary
All eyes on the Judiciary of Sierra Leone as the civil defamation matter between Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Yusuf Sillah Versus New Age Newspaper, Thomas Dixon and Aruna Momoh Kargbo will come up this Monday 3 March before High Court Judge, Adrian Fischer.
New Age Newspaper and it editors were taken to court by Sierra Leone Commercial Bank and its General Manager for reporting a writ of summon for which the Bank, one Abdul Jalloh and the General Manager of Sierra Leone Commercial Bank were taken to court for estate fraud.
The Bank claimed that the said publications and its content therein are defamatory, false and malicious whereas the defendants believed that the article are based on facts available to them at the material time and made fair and accurate reporting contemporaneously with Cc:42/24 Umu Jalloh (Plaintiff) and Abdul Jalloh and 3 others defendants which at the material time the plaintiffs are party to with the allegations published as pleaded.
In the last appearance before the same judge, Counsel for the defendants said that he received an unsigned affidavit from the applicant for the plaintiffs which does not follow the law and procedures, asking the judge to strike out the matter raised in it.
He said that some of the questions asked in the interrogatories were oppressive and to the knowledge of the plaintiffs, pointing out that some of the questions are unfair to the defendants.
The Defense Counsel maintained that as at the material time of the publication, what his client published is true and that the allegations in the publication are true, insiting that truth is his defence.
Justice Fisher ordered the defence counsel to respond to the affidavit of the applicant before the adjourned date. Counsel for the plaintiff asked the defence council to show the parameters of truth.
Coincidentally, the matter for which the newspaper published content of the writ will also come up today before the same judge.