Court rules nothing defamatory in Jagdeo’s ‘hostage’ statements against Myers

In a ruling delivered last August 1 by Justice Navindra Singh, former Deputy Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Roxanne Myers’ defamation complaints against PPP General Secretary Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and the News Room were thrown out and she was ordered to pay costs.

The Court awarded costs in the sum of $500,000 to each Defendant, which are to be paid on or before September 12, 2024.

Lawyers Natasha Vieira and Abhimanyu Dev represented Jagdeo and the News Room, while Eusi Anderson represented Myers.

Myers instituted this Claim against the Defendants on March 4, 2021 and thereafter filed an Amended Claim on June 7, 2021, claiming damages for defamation, specifically, for statements made by Jagdeo during an interview on March 5, 2020, which were published by the News Room.

Myers pleaded that Jagdeo uttered a number of defamatory statements, including the following:

* Roxanne Myers now has taken the chair in a room and the two of them are locked up there. I suspect Roxanne Myers is in contact with Congress Place and bullying the Chair. She is being held hostage in a room now, in GECOM, the Chair is being held hostage in a room with Roxanne Myers. She’s held hostage in now, but Roxanne Myers sitting in here with her.

* Roxanne Myers is the one who brought the fraudulent list … that came here.

* An injunction was filed, and they can’t even get to serve the Chair because she is held hostage in her office.

* You recall how Patterson hired Roxanne Myers.

* I tried to see her and Roxanne Myers rushed into the room and stood up there too … when I was there she was not going to leave. She wants to be there all the lime. She is the one … who came there and now locked up in the room the last three hours, the Chair can’t emerge. I believe the Chair is held hostage and calls are coming into her and threatening her holding her hostage in a room. She is in the building in a room with Roxanne Myers guarded by police outside. We have a Chair now who is held hostage.

* APNU is working through Roxanne Myers and Lowenfield.

However, the Defendants contend that the statements were either factual, honest opinion, privileged and/or fair comment since they were aimed at addressing matters of public interest.

Consequently, on January 25, 2024, the lawyers for News Room, Vieira and Dev, filed an Application requesting the Court to determine whether the statements complained of are defamatory.

The Court found that none of the statements were defamatory. The Amended Claim by Myers was dismissed in its entirety as the court said the words in the statements do not contain defamatory meanings and in any event the defence of truth had been established by Jagdeo and not rebutted.