A High Court in Accra has struck out an application for injunction filed by the National Service Authority (NSA) against the publication of an investigative report by The Fourth Estate, the investigative journalism project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).
Lawyers for the MFWA, led by Mr. Samson Anyenini, were in court today, December 19, 2024, to file processes to challenge the case as being frivolous and abuse of the court process, and thus, to ask the court to throw out the case.
But even before the MFWA’s lawyers could mount their defense, the NSA’s lawyers from Sam Okudzeto and Associates, beat a hasty retreat. They announced to the court that they had filed a notice of discontinuance of their case.
Lawyers for the MFWA then told the court that the NSA knew very well that they had no cause of action and no capacity to sue, and thus, the discontinuance notice was a preemptive action.
Counsel for the MFWA further told the court that the NSA’s action was a SLAPP suit only for the purpose of the ex-parte injunction to serve their interest.
The case was accordingly struck out by the court. The court then awarded a cost of GHC6,000 in favour of the MFWA. The court also prohibited the NSA from coming back to court to refile the case.
The decision of the court paves the way for the publication of the story as had advertised. The story will, therefore, be released to the public soon.
Background
On December 2, 2024, the NSA ran to court on the blind side of the MFWA, to secure a 10-day Ex Parte injunction to prevent The Fourth Estate from publishing a series of investigative stories on acts of corruption that were due to be released from December 3, 2024.
The court had indicated that the Ex Patre injunction order was based on an affidavit deposed to on behalf of the NSA by Angela Ohene-Boateng, the head of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the NSA, as well as arguments by Dominic Brenya Otchere, of Sam Okudzeto and Associates, who is lawyer for the NSA.
Upon the expiration of the Ex Parte injunction on December 12, the NSA and its lawyers went back to court to seek a further injunction to prevent The Fourth Estate from publishing its story.
The NSA argued that if The Fourth Estate was allowed to publish the story into the NSA’s activities without hearing its side of the story, it would suffer “irreparable harm.”
“That the reputations of the applicant (NSA) and its management will be soiled if the respondents (MFWA and others) are allowed to proceed with their threatened publication and if it later turns out to be a false story, the injury and reputational damage occasioned cannot be reversed,” the NSA prayed the court.
Meanwhile, prior the court case and ahead of the announcement of the intended publication, The Fourth Estate had offered the leadership of the NSA the opportunity to respond to the issues being investigated. The efforts made to get their side of the story included an official letter requesting for an interview.
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