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TV personality sues newspaper A television presenter is suing the privately-owned Times of Swaziland newspaper for E900 000 (approx. US $ 90 000) for alleged defamation. In papers filed at the Swaziland High Court, Themba Xaba, a presenter for the privately-owned Channel Swazi TV station, claims he has been defamed by three recent articles the Times published about him with one of them headlined ‘Cops struggle to find Mthimbawawa’. He is claiming E300 000 (approx. US $ 30 000) for each article.
Xaba, who is known as 'Mthimbawawa', claimed all three serial articles were understood by readers of the newspaper to mean that he was evading arrest by police and that he was a fugitive of the law. He said the statements contained in the articles were wrongful and defamatory and as such he viewed the articles to have been published with the intention to injure his reputation. The newspaper, in defence, says it did not publish the articles recklessly and argues that their publication was objectively reasonable. “ As a consequence the defendant disputes the amount claimed and states that the plaintiff has not suffered as alleged,” the newspaper has said in its replying papers. Rashweat Mukundu Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring MISA Regional Secretariat 21 Johann Albrecht Street Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia Tel: + 264 61 232 975 Fax:+264 61 248016 Mobile: 00 264 813 675 362 E mail rashweat@misa.org, misaalerts@gmail.com Back

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