Complaint from Marrah & Associates on behalf of Abdul Rahman Mahdi, Director of Business Development, Rokel Commercial Bank, against Prime Times Newspaper dated Wednesday, 9th March, 2022 with caption: “As alleged…The Evil Trinity at RCB Scheming against the Managing Director”.
The Chairman, Commissioner Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai welcomed the litigants to the Complaints hearing. After a brief introduction by all present, the Chairman explained the procedures of the Committee to the litigants. He requested the Complainant Mr. Abdul Rahman Mahdi, to restate his complaint.
Mr. Abdul Rahman Mahdi reiterated that he complained Prime Times Newspaper for publishing in its edition of 9th March 2022 an article about him titled: “As alleged …The Evil Trinity at RCB Scheming against the Managing Director”; and that the publication also had his photograph.
He maintained that the said publication was defamatory and slanderous and was entirely derogatory, repulsive, insulting, false and unsubstantiated and /or disingenuously woven piece of misinformation and is intended to bring his name into disrepute and ridicule him in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public.
Mr. Mahdi further stated that the content of the publication, though in the preface were described “as alleged”, the sum of the content on the contrary speaks of a factual narrative. He said he was denied an opportunity to comment on the story as he was never contacted for his own side. Mr. Mahdi stated that the publication depicted him as being a part of an association termed “Trinity of Evil”, with the aim of discrediting the Managing Director, Dr. Gilpin and/or Rokel Commercial Bank. He said throughout his 33-year career in the bank, he had never been queried. He said when he saw the article, he instructed his legal representative to write the newspaper and request for a retraction.
After restating his complaint, members of the committee cross examined him with the following questions:
- Are you at war with your MD? His response was, No!
- Have you at any point in time worked towards undermining his regime? No!
- Is Mr. Emmanuel Borbor your friend? Yes!
- Have you connived with Mr. Emmanuel Borbor to undermine Mr. Gilpin? No.
- Is Mr. Gilpin your friend? No.
- Is Ms. Margaret Davies your friend? Yes!
- Can you do anything in the bank that Mr. Gilpin is not aware of? No.
- Have you done anything that Mr. Gilpin is not happy about? ‘It must be the way I execute my duty? Yes, a memo about 1 year ago’, he said.
- What is your position in the bank? ‘Business Development Director’!
- Do you want to be MD of the bank? I would want to be MD of any institution.
- Are you working with Emmanuel Borbor and Margaret Davies to unseat Gilpin? ‘No.’
- Have you ever heard the term, ‘Trinity of Evil’? He said, ‘No, this is the first time’.
- Did anybody from Prime Times Newspaper call you to get your own side of the story? ‘Nobody contacted me’, he said.
- Did you discuss this publication with the MD? ‘No’.
- Why didn’t you discuss it with him? ‘I don’t think I should discuss an article with him that is accusing me of plotting against him’.
- Do you flout management decision? ‘No’.
Before given the opportunity to respond to the complaint, the Chairman of the Committee asked the Editor few questions, which included the following:
- What is your name? ‘Kemoh Saidu Sesay’, he responded.
- How long have you been editing Prime Times? ‘For one year six months now’.
- Did you go to Media School? ‘Yes, Fourah Bay College’.
- Did you edit the story? ‘No, I was not in Freetown’.
- Who edited it? ‘The Managing Editor’
After answering the above questions, the Chairman asked the Editor, Kemoh Saidu Sesay to react to the complaint. Reacting to the complaint, Kemoh Saidu Sesay said he did not stand by the story and apologised to the complainant. He further stated that he did not know Mr. Mahdi personally and had no reason to want to publish any defamatory or slanderous stories against him. He reiterated that he has edited the Prime Times Newspaper for one and half years now, and that was the first time that Prime Times has been brought before IMC on a complaint. He noted that when he took up office upon completion of his studies, he had tried to implement what he learned at the university because he knew that he had a long way to go in the profession. Therefore, he said, he had been taking care not to breach the professional ethics.
Kemoh Saidu Sesay further stated that before the day of the publication he had actually edited some of the stories, but he had to travel to Bo city to attend an emergency family meeting. So he handed over the stories that he had edited to the Managing Editor and left. He said while in Bo he was unable to go through the other stories that they later received because they experienced power cut. He said when he came back and saw the story, he asked the Managing Editor and the graphic designer who lays out the pages about the source of the story and when they showed him. He said he inquired from him whether he had evidence for the story and whether he would be able to defend it if they were summoned to do so.
He said the source said, ‘no’. Kemoh Saidu Sesay said he told them that he will not continue to publish such a story and that they should retract it. He said they were on the verge of retracting when they received a letter from Mr. Mahdi’s legal representative also requesting them to do same. He said they did the retraction and shared copies with the people mentioned in the story. He said, that they were able to reach the other two parties but were unable to reach Mr. Mahdi or his legal representative, as they were told that the latter was out of the country.
The Editor further stated that he took some actions. First, he said he reported the matter to the Central Police Station, but some of their senior colleagues intervened and advised him to withdraw the matter from the police. He said they took further action by ‘suspending the layout man’, and that he was no longer working for Prime Times Newspaper.
The Editor was requested to produce the retraction that they did, which he did. However, members of the Committee examined the retraction and observed that it did not carry the same prominence as the offending article. The Chairman asked the Complainant what he makes of the retraction. The Complainant said he was not satisfied with the retraction.
COMMITTEE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
COMMITTEE’S FINDINGS:
During deliberations, the Editor, Kemoh Saidu Sesay apologized and said he did not stand by the story. He also said he was not the one that edited the Newspaper on that day as he was out of Freetown at the time. He submitted an edition of the newspaper showing retraction that they had already done on the story. The Committee however noted that the retraction did not carry the same prominence as the story and the Complainant was not pleased with it and did not accept it.
COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATIONS
The Board of the Independent Media Commission at its meeting held on Wednesday 26th October 2022 adopted the recommendations of the Complaints Committee as follows:
- That a fine of NLe 500 (Five Hundred New Leones) be levied on Prime Times Newspaper in accordance with principle 3 of the Media Code of Practice
- That the Editor retracts the story with equal prominence in its next publication upon receipt of this ruling.
