Chronicle accepts article on Tamesh Jagmohan was malicious, defamatory; to pay millions in settlement

The Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL), printers and publishers of the Chronicle newspaper, has accepted it defamed businessman Tamesh Jagmohan back in 2020 and is to pay millions of dollars in a settlement.

GNNL accepted that on May 3, 2020, the Guyana Chronicle published an article titled “A PPP financier hosted the diplomatic mission on Election Day” and that this article was malicious and defamatory of Jagmohan.

As part of the settlement, GNNL is required to pay Jagmohan millions in settlement.

In August 2020, Jagmohan filed legal action against GNNL and Adam Harris, the writer of the article, seeking damages in excess of $150,000,000 for defamation and exemplary and aggravated damages in excess of $50,000,000, among other orders.

This settlement is limited to the liability of the GNNL, the first defendant in the matter, and does not affect the liability of Harris, the third defendant.

The article was published under the management of a Board of Directors appointed by the A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government and former Editor-in-Chief of the Guyana Chronicle Nigel Williams.

A new Board of Directors was appointed in September, 2020, and considered the allegations raised in the lawsuit and also sought legal advice thereon.

The new administration concluded that a number of baseless and unfounded statements and allegations against Jagmohan were published for which there was no evidence in support and caused the defamatory article to be removed from the newspapers website and online archive.

The lawsuit on behalf of Jagmohan was filed by Messrs. Glenn Hanoman, Manoj Narayan and Joshua Abdool, Attorneys-at-Law.

The settlement was agreed to by General Manager Moshamie Ramotar and Editor-in-chief Tajeram Mohabir.