Patterson Verdict A Grave Disservice To Country

A Jamaican Court award­ed $12.5 mil­lion to Patterson against Cliff Hughes with inter­est which is expect­ed to sub­stan­tial­ly increase the amount Hughes will have to pay out. The court made the rul­ing and has award­ed inter­est, which could take the fig­ure to $20 million.

Patterson a for­mer Jamaican Prime Minister was award­ed the Judgement against Journalist Cliff Hughes head of Nation Wide News(NWN. Patterson alleged defama­tion aris­ing out of an inci­dent relat­ed to a news item aired by the sta­tion in 2009, ‎con­cern­ing an inci­dent at the Norman Manley International Airport involv­ing a Digicel char­ter flight which arrived from Cuba with Patterson. The news report alleged that Patterson and oth­ers were removed from the flight at the Norman Manley International Airport and searched. Patterson sought a whop­ping $180 mil­lion dol­lar judge­ment against Hughes and NWN.

Here is my prob­lem with this deci­sion by the Court.

Percival James Patterson is the longest serv­ing Prime Minister in Jamaica’s his­to­ry. He is also a lawyer by trade. Arguably Patterson has been a dis­as­ter as a Prime Minister . His pro­tegé Portia Simpson Miller may sur­pass him in her abil­i­ty to do harm to the Caribbean Nation of 2.7 million.

The deci­sion of the Court to make this award over such a friv­o­lous mis­take as the one alleged­ly com­mit­ted by NWN sends a chill­ing mes­sage to the Media in this Caribbean Nation that some peo­ple are not to be messed with.

Jamaica has always been a Country where some who hold mon­e­tary and polit­i­cal pow­er were beyond reproach .

Patterson as a Lawyer , Politician and Elder states­man of the Left-wing Neanderthal pro­gres­sive move­ment in the Caribbean, sure­ly has tremen­dous sway and influ­ence over the Courts. Some Court watch­ers com­plain that Patterson snick­ered and gig­gled through­out Hughes tes­ti­mo­ny. Could Patterson have know what the out­come of the tri­al would be before evi­dence was even heard?

Already some Media Houses are scram­bling out of fear behind the scenes. Some web­sites like the Jamaicaobsrver​.com are scrub­bing their DISQUS archives of any com­ment that could even vague­ly be con­strued to be a chal­lenge to the integri­ty of Jamaica’s Criminal Political Administration.

I believe in the rule of law, I also believe that Journalists should at least get their facts straight before they go to the pub­lic with Information. However it can­not be that Media Houses are cowed into silence by a Court System so over­ly pro­tec­tive of the polit­i­cal Oligarchy that it makes huge mon­e­tary awards for the slight­est infraction.

How was Patterson harmed , where is the injury ?

In a Nation where it is next to impos­si­ble to gain a con­vic­tion against heinous murderers,it is incon­ceiv­able that the same sys­tem could make a huge mon­e­tary award with inter­est against a media house which reports the news. It is a chill­ing tes­ta­ment against the direc­tion Jamaica is head­ing. It also speaks loud­ly to the cor­ro­sive insid­i­ous dam­age done to the Country by years of extend­ed PNP rule.

Previously it was believed that the Courts were above the fray. It is clear­er by the day that the Courts are no longer insu­lat­ed from the dev­as­tat­ing effects of the extreme­ly cor­rupt People’s National Party/​Administration.