The era of lazy
journalism has damaged a lot of people’s reputation. The quest to make money
and become famous over night as a writer, soft sell magazine publishers, face
book journalism and blog lords has broken a lot of relationships/homes, left a
lot of ladies and guys single or divorced.
There’s no point
going for deliverance in churches and mosque ,all you need to do is enforce
your right against whoever publish or say any defamatory statements that is
capable of tarnishing your image and before you know it you will get judgment
and reputation restored.
The law made
provision for restoration of maliciously tarnished images by another, under the
law defamation occupies a prominent place in the Nigerian law as it does in the
law of other common law countries.
What is
defamation?
Section 373 of
the criminal code defines defamatory statement as one which tends to lower the
plaintiff in the estimation of right thinking members of the society or expose
him to hatred, contempt of ridicule or cause to other person to shun or avoid
him.
Defamation is of
two categories which are Libel and Slander.
Libel is
defamation in the permanent form, the most common being which is written or
printed in permanent form i.e. Magazines
Slander is
defamation in transient form most often during the medium of spoken words. This
does not include ‘YOU ARE A FOOL’
‘BASTARD’
Where any of
these two happen, as a private person or public person you have the right to
sue the tortfeasor in both civil and criminal action for which the law provides
a legal right to seek relief.
Section 375 of
the criminal code provide penalty for anyone who publish defamatory statement
with a term of imprisonment. It is not unknown in Nigeria that some journalists
publish defamatory statements in order to extort the person the publication is
directed to, where this happen such person shall be guilty of a term of
imprisonment as provided in section 376 of the criminal code.
As a public or
private person, it is time to say NO to defamatory statements.
The service of a
lawyer is required in enforcement of these
rights against the offender.
Thank you.
Oyenike
Alliyu-Adebiyi Llb(hons)Bl
Brief but detailed keep it up babes
ReplyDeleteAre satire/spoof news websites immune from being sued for defamation ? Check out www.theonion.com in USA for example. They write a lot of stuffs about Barack Obama and other public figures in a ridiculous manner and they get away with it. So is there a provision which protects Satire/Spoof News Websites ? If yes... does it apply in Nigeria too ?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 2:10 They are not immune from being sued for defamation both in Nigeria and in United State, in united state for instance as decided in the famous case of John Peter Zenger 1734 which established a precedent that truth is an absolute defence against charges of libel. Also in New York Times v Sulivan in 1964 where it was stated that public officers in united state can win libel cases if they can prove beyond reasonable doubt the media in question knew the information was wholly and patently false and still went ahead to write or say it. It was the inability of most public officers in US to prove this that left most of the defamatory statements unchallenged.
ReplyDeleteThis is also applicable in Nigeria as decided in the case of Mrs Eva Anike Akomolafe & anor V guardian press limited & 3 ors and in VM Iloabachie esq V Benedict N
Thank you
Ok thank you for your reply.
Delete