(MISA/IFEX) – “The Namibian” newspaper and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) this week reached an out-of-court settlement with five former police and military offices, who were poised to sue the two institutions for defamation totaling more than N$1.2-million. The matter was due to come before the court on 8 February 1999. The five plaintiffs – […]
(MISA/IFEX) – “The Namibian” newspaper and the Namibian Broadcasting
Corporation (NBC) this week reached an out-of-court settlement with five
former police and military offices, who were poised to sue the two
institutions for defamation totaling more than N$1.2-million. The matter
was due to come before the court on 8 February 1999.
The five plaintiffs – former Namibian Police Deputy Commissioner Flip
Nel, former Police Warrent Officer Riaan White, Sergeant Danie
Oberholzer, former Namibian Defence Force weapons expert Colonel Des
Radmore and former South West African Police Sergeant Martin Bornman –
were each claiming N$245,000 (approx. US$40,560) from the newspaper, a
former journalist at the newspaper, Erich Boois, the newspaper’s holding
company, the Free Press of Namibia, and the NBC.
The action was instituted following a report in “The Namibian” in 1993,
and which was subsequently carried by the NBC, relating to the
assassination of political activist Anton Lubowski. Lubowski was gunned
down in Windhoek in 1989, and to date his murderers have still not been
brought to book.
The settlement reached this week was contingent on a “clarification”, as
opposed to an apology, which was published in the paper. The
“clarification”, which was carried on page three of the newspaper, read
in part: “In 1993 we reported that we had uncovered what lay behind the
assassination of [South West African People’s Organisation] Swapo
activist, Anton Lubowski. We said that plans to do this were made by a
number of high ranking members of the former SWA Police and Defence
Force.
“We did so because we were given affidavits to this effect. Although we
took a number of steps to check their authenticity, a High Court Judge
in the inquest found, which we then reported, that the named individuals
[the five plaintiffs] did not conspire to assassinate Anton Lubowski. We
accept the correctness of that finding. In the same finding, the High
Court stated that ‘The Namibian’ had acted in the public interest in
publishing these allegations.”
The “clarification” went on to note that the newspaper had acted in good
faith in publishing the information and had done so without any malice
towards the individuals concerned. At the outset, the clarification also
noted that “The Namibian” was committed to freedom of expression. It
added that because of this commitment, it was led to expose, time and
again, security force abuses under South African rule.
