Cecilia Dapaah sues Multimedia Group for defamations
Cecilia Dapaah, a former minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, has filed a lawsuit against the Multimedia Group, claiming defamation in connection with what she claims are many publications by the media outlet that have damaged her reputation.
Dapaah’s legal team refers to a particular occurrence involving the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as the catalyst for these claims in a statement of claim submitted on her behalf by her attorney, Victoria Barth.
The claim states that on August 8, 2023, the OSP submitted an application to the High Court’s Financial and Economic Crime Division regarding the seizure of money from Dapaah’s marital residence in Abelemkpe and freezing orders against her bank accounts.
The plaintiff claims that subsequent publications by the Multimedia Group, notably JoyNews, erroneously reported on the amounts of money in her bank accounts by citing nameless and unreliable sources. This is the basis of the defamation claim. “OSP tracks $5m, finds GHc 48m in Cecilia Dapaah’s Prudential Bank accounts,” according to a headline from August 10, 2023, and this information was repeated in numerous YouTube stories.
JoyNews proceeded to spread the allegedly bogus material in spite of the OSP publicly refuting these claims via their verified social media handle.
The defense team for Dapaah contends that the persistent dissemination of this false material has led to a negative public image of their client’s reputation and character.
Dapaah’s attorneys provided the Multimedia Group with a chance to respond to these accusations by retracting the articles and issuing an apology, especially after the OSP refuted the information. However, the media organization had not done so as of August 11, 2023.
According to the statement of claim, Ms. Dapaah is seeking the court for six (6) specific declarations and orders.
In the first place, a declaration that JoyNews’ numerous articles titled “Joy News Prime // Cecilia Dapaah Case: OSP tracks $5m in total bank transactions over a period” and “JoyNews Today // OSP finds $5million and Ghc48million in Cecilia Dapaah’s bank accounts” on the social media website YouTube are untrue and defamatory to the Plaintiff (Cecilia Dapaah).
“Secondly, Ms Dapaah is asking for general damages for the injury to her reputation.
“Thirdly, exemplary damages for the reckless and malicious reportage,
“Fourth, an order of perpetual injunction restraining Multimedia Group and its news outlets from publishing any further defamatory material about Ms Dapaah.
“Fifth, a retraction and apology by Multimedia Group and its news outlets with the same means, coverage, and prominence with which the defamatory publications were published and lastly, any other order(s) that the court may deem fit”.
