NEWSPAPER RESTRAINED FROM PUBLICATION

THE Accra High Court has restrained Concord Media Ltd, publishers of Gye Nyame Concord newspaper and Mr Alfred Ogbame, the managing editor from the publication of stories of an alleged scandal at the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and its Director General until the determination of a suit against them.
The court's order was contained in its ruling on June 11, 2007, in an application for an order of interlocutory injunction made by Mr Atta Akyea on behalf of the GPHA and Mr Ben Owusu Mensah, the Director General.
The plaintiffs have sued the defendants claiming general damages for what it described as very offensive and defamatory publications in the Wednesday, November 29 -Tuesday, December 5, 2006 and Wednesday, December 6 -Tuesday, December 13, 2006 edition of the Gye Nyame Concord.
They also claimed an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further publishing similar words defamatory of them.
In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs stated that the GPHA was a statutory body mandated by law to plan, build, develop, manage, maintain, operate and control ports in Ghana while Mr Owusu Mensah was a transport consultant with impeccable pedigree.
According to them, the defendants in the Wednesday, November 29 - Tuesday, December 5, 2006 edition of the newspaper published a defamatory story under the headline " A $16 million scandal at GPHA what went wrong? How did a contract of $14 million jump to over $16 million."
They said that the newspaper had a teaser that "We arranged to pad it up with $2 million to be shared among us. Now they have cheated me and I will talk" ,claims a Whistleblower. No, we did not do what he is alleging ...charged the GPHA Chief Executive Ben Owusu Mensah" and informed its readers to watch out for the amazing story soon.
"This rather terse defamatory publication was calculated to whet the appetite of the reading public and to enhance the future circulation of the Gye Nyame Concord", they stated.
They said that further in the Wednesday, December 6 - Tuesday, December 13, 2006, the defendants published that "Ogbame dares GPHA boss over $16 million scandal at GPHA" and quoted the managing editor of the newspaper as challenging Mr Owusu Mensah on Radio Gold to go to court if he had nothing to hide in the alleged $2 million scandal at GPHA.
"He has bitten more than he can chew. We haven't done the story yet and the man is running wild threatening all over the place", they quoted Mr Ogbame as having told Radio Gold.
In the second story, the plaintiffs said the defendants adorned the front page of the newspaper with a picture of Mr Owusu Mensah in order to secure the highest embarrassment for him and in their natural and ordinary meaning, the words meant and were understood to mean that the GPHA was a corrupt corporate body run by corrupt officers.
They said the GPHA Director General who was in charge of the day-to-day running of the authority, was particularly singled out for vilification that he was strenuously seeking to hide a corrupt transaction by the authority.
Furthermore, they said the managing editor in that sleazy publication portrayed the GPHA Director General as the beneficiary of a fraudulent transaction with a mark-up of $2 million.
The defendants, the plaintiffs stated were bent on peddling falsehood about them against the backdrop that the transaction was above board although it was sanctioned by the Board of Directors of GPHA.
In their statement of defence, Mr Ogbame denied that the said publications were intended to defame the plaintiffs and counter claimed that the conduct of Mr Owusu Mensah was actuated by malice and had caused him pain, embarrassment, ridicule and injured his reputation as an award winning journalist as well as his professional career as a journalist.
Therefore, Mr Ogbame is also claiming damages for defamation and costs.
They said the said publication was an accurate representation of the essentials of the various interviews granted by Mr Ogbame and that the story as told by an informant, which source they viewed as a Whistleblower.
The defendants said that the informant was at all material times to the execution of the contract between the GPHA and Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. Ltd (ZPMC), a member and or Director of KF 94 Ltd, which acted as local representatives of ZPMC.
According to the defendants, the original source of the publication was a Radio Gold programme in which Mr Owusu Mensah appeared to justify and or respond to the defendants'' publication dated November 29, 2006 to December 5, 2006.
They said it was during the Radio Gold programme that Mr Owusu Mensah made scurrilous allegations and defamatory statements about the defendants and in order to authenticate and or verify the said allegations, Mr Ogbame was put on air to respond to the unfounded allegations.
The defendants said Mr Owusu Mensah on December 4, 2006 organised a press conference in which he made defamatory statements concerning and about Mr Ogbame, that he was a rogue journalist and unprofessional as well as an extortionist and blackmailer.
They maintained that the contract sum was $14.7 million but the actual sum paid by the GPHA was $16.7 million and that the various publications were as accurate and fair reflection of what transpired during and after the execution of the contract between GPHA and ZPMC.
They said that it was rather Mr Owusu Mensah who had injured their reputation by the various statements made against them during the December 4, 2006, press conference and a further advertiser’s announcement in the Daily Graphic, the Crusading Guide and the Daily Guide newspapers.
The defendants are represented by Mr Charles Puozuing.