Wednesday, September 2 2009

A HIGH Court judge has described as irresponsible journalism the failure of two reporters in the Express and Guardian newspapers, to ascertain the correct name of a police officer before publishing his name in relation to a court story.

Justice Judith Jones awarded Corporal Benjamin Parson $65,000 for damages in a judgment for defamation he filed against the two newspapers.

Parson was wrongly named as the police complainant in a case which Acting Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington was forced to dismiss.

According to the 25-page judgment handed down in the San Fernando High Court two weeks ago, Jones in an outline of the facts, stated that the newspapers accurately reported that Wellington had freed three students charged with setting their school on fire. But according to the judgment, they wrongly reported that the magistrate dismissed the case because of the non appearance of the complainant whose name was called in court as “Constable Parson” .

But Jones stated that both daily newspapers erroneously reported that Cpl Benjamin Parson was the complainant in the matter, and it was he who failed to attend court, which resulted in the dismissal of the case.

The newsday reported the case in which it published the correct name of the police complainant.

In her judgment, Jones stated that in her view, the non- appearance of a police officer in a case which was aborted as a result, will have the effect of bringing that officer into disrepute since it was not him, but some other police officer.

The judge stated that the name ‘PC Parsons’ was called in court, but both dailies published that Cpl Benjamin Parsons was the officer who failed to attend court, which resulted in the case’s dismissal.