Legal Action

July 17
Daily Gleaner, LEGAL ACTION
A Jamaican jury ordered the Gleaner Company Ltd., owner of the island's oldest newspaper, the Daily Gleaner, to pay an unprecedented US$2.5 million in damages for libel to Eric Anthony Abrahams, a former Minister of Tourism. The case stems from an article that was published by the Associated Press news agency in 1987 and picked up by the Daily Gleaner and its afternoon tabloid, the Star. The report contained allegations that Abrahams had accepted bribes from a U.S. advertising firm in return for the Jamaican government's advertising and public relations contract.

For more information contact americasweb@cpj.org