US Court cuts Ghanaian journalist's defamation award from $18m to $500
A US court has reduced the $18 million awarded to Ghanaian investigative journalist Aremeyaw Anas in a defamation case to just $500.
The New Jersey court judge reduced the amount after former Ghanaian MP Kennedy Agyapong and his legal team requested that it be reduced.
Mr Anas had been awarded $18 million in damages after an eight-member jury found the Ghanaian politician guilty of defamation in March.
In a Daddy Fred show podcast episode released in 2021, Mr Agyapong labelled the undercover reporter a criminal. He allegedly implicated him in the murder of a fellow journalist, Ahmed Suale. Suale, a journalist who worked closely with Mr Anas, was shot dead in 2019.
Mr Agyapong made these allegations while commenting on Mr Anas’s 2018 BBC exposé about corruption in Ghanaian football.
According to a BBC report, Mr Anas, after the release of the podcast, filed a defamation suit in New Jersey, where the politician has property.
Mr Agyapong’s lawyers argued that the case should not have been filed in a US court, but without success.
They claimed the comments were hyperboles and opinions and were not made as factual statements.
However, the Essex County Superior Court jury unanimously found Mr Agyapong liable for defamation and awarded Mr Anas $18 million in damages.
Reacting to the judgment, Mr Anas, an award-winning investigative journalist, was quoted as saying, “Justice has prevailed. This victory is not just for me, but for truth, press freedom, and every journalist who risks everything to expose corruption and wrongdoing.
“No amount of intimidation or falsehood will silence the pursuit of accountability even in the face of assassination. Our work continues, undeterred and unafraid.”
However, at Mr Agyapong’s request, a US Court, in May, drastically reduced the sum awarded as damages to $500.
Mr Anas, however, vowed to appeal the case.
The BBC reported that Mr Anas filed an initial case in Ghana, where he lost.
The Ghanaian court judge had ruled against him while describing his work as “investigative terrorism.”
Mr Anas’ investigations have exposed corruption and wrongdoings in Ghana and many other African countries, including Nigeria.
