SAMP­SON NAN­TON

The High Court has or­dered po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple's Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP), Phillip Alexan­der, to pay $775,000 in dam­ages to busi­ness­man and PNM fi­nancier An­drew Gabriel fol­low­ing a defama­tion law­suit.

Gabriel sued Alexan­der for defama­tion based on state­ments made on Alexan­der's Face­book page and on his ra­dio pro­gramme.

Alexan­der ac­cused Gabriel and his wife of ben­e­fit­ting fi­nan­cial­ly from their con­nec­tions to the rul­ing Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment.

Alexan­der ar­gued that his state­ments were cov­ered by the free­dom of ex­pres­sion and the me­dia, as well as the right to the ex­pres­sion of po­lit­i­cal views,

Gabriel said he and his fam­i­ly, in­clud­ing his wife and chil­dren suf­fered men­tal an­guish from Alexan­der's con­stant at­tacks.

Af­ter Gabriel warned Alexan­der about his state­ments, he ramped up his at­tacks and even in­vit­ed the pub­lic to send him any dam­ag­ing in­for­ma­tion about Gabriel, his busi­ness and his fam­i­ly.

Jus­tice Car­ol Gob­in said that even though Alexan­der de­scribed his at­tacks as "rants", he seemed un­re­pen­tant about his scan­dalous claims.

"The case on­ly con­firms the lim­its of two im­por­tant con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, the right to free­dom of ex­pres­sion and the right to ex­pres­sion of po­lit­i­cal views and it has long been es­tab­lished that these rights are not ab­solute," she said.

"They do not trump the law of defama­tion. This is a defama­tion ac­tion plain and sim­ple," she added.

Jus­tice Gob­in's award is a re­minder that Trinidad and To­ba­go's com­menters on Face­book and oth­er plat­forms are not im­mune from be­ing sued for dam­ages.

Dur­ing the case, Alexan­der, who de­scribed him­self as a jour­nal­ist, claimed that his state­ments were made "on an oc­ca­sion of qual­i­fied priv­i­lege".

Gob­in sug­gest­ed that Alexan­der's de­fence was flawed.

"His state­ments were based on ru­mours, as­sump­tions, pub­lic per­cep­tion and his own ob­ser­va­tions which have re­mained a mys­tery," she said.

Jus­tice Gob­in award­ed Gabriel gen­er­al dam­ages of $525,000 and ag­gra­vat­ed dam­ages of $250,000, for a to­tal of $775,000.

Alexan­der has al­so been or­dered to pay Gabriel's le­gal fees.Jus­tice Gob­in award­ed Gabriel gen­er­al dam­ages of $525,000 and ag­gra­vat­ed dam­ages of $250,000, for a to­tal of $775,000.

Alexan­der has al­so been or­dered to pay Gabriel's le­gal fees but he has sig­naled his de­ci­sion to chal­lenge the rul­ing.

"We, of course, dis­agree with the judge’s in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the facts and we have sig­naled our in­ten­tion to ap­peal," he said.

Asked whether this will af­fect his ac­tions on so­cial me­dia, Alexan­der said he was an ac­tivist and “the out­come of this mat­ter will in no way de­ter my mis­sion".

"I am will­ing to go as far as it takes to prove this was not defama­tion," he said.

Gabriel, mean­while, said he felt vin­di­cat­ed.

"This is a vin­di­ca­tion for my­self and my fam­i­ly who have been sav­aged by fake news and mal­ice that was rec­og­nized in judg­ment," he said, adding, "I am sat­is­fied with the rul­ing."