A U.S. court hearing a defamation suit brought by a Ghanaian journalist against a politician has ruled in favor of the journalist, marking a significant victory for press freedom in Ghana.
In a unanimous decision, a jury of the Essex County Superior Court in New Jersey awarded undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas $18 million (GH¢279 million) in damages.
The court, presided over by Judge Jeffrey B. Beacham, agreed with Anas that Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, a former MP for Assin Central in Ghana, had been reckless and defamatory when he publicly accused Anas of being a criminal, a thief, and responsible for the January 2019 murder of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela.
Anas and his legal team filed the lawsuit on May 17, 2022, at the Essex County Superior Court. In the suit, the journalist accused Kennedy Agyapong and media personality Frederick Asamoah of making defamatory statements against him during an episode of The Daddy Fred Show, an online program popular among Ghanaian audiences in the United States.
During the episode, Mr. Agyapong is said to have made a series of damaging and false claims against Anas. In the lawsuit, the journalist detailed Agyapong’s allegations, including claims that Anas had been convicted of crimes in Ghana, orchestrated the murder of his colleague Ahmed Suale, was responsible for the deaths of multiple Chinese nationals in Ghana, and was a thief.
In their unanimous verdict, the eight-member jury found Mr. Agyapong liable for defamation and awarded $18 million (GH¢279 million) in damages.
This legal victory in the U.S. comes after a setback for Anas in Ghana, where the High Court in Accra ruled against him in a similar case. In Ghana, Anas had sued Agyapong for GH¢25 million ($1.6 million) in damages for making similar defamatory statements. However, on March 15, 2023, the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Eric Baah, ruled against Anas, describing his investigative methods as “investigative terrorism.”
The judge’s ruling contained elements widely regarded as prejudicial. Commenting on the judgment in a media interview, the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, stated that the judge had defamed the plaintiff with his controversial remarks.
Anas later lost his appeal when Ghana’s Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s judgment in a 3-2 decision in 2024.
This victory in the U.S. court, therefore, marks a complete reversal of fortune for the journalist. In a post-judgment statement on Facebook, Anas underscored the significance of winning a defamation case in the United States, where a high legal threshold is required. “Proving defamation in the United States is an exceptionally high hurdle, requiring clear and convincing evidence of malice. That the jury ruled unanimously in my favor underscores that Mr. Agyapong acted both maliciously and recklessly in his attacks against me.”
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) welcomes the unanimous US Court ruling as an eloquent statement of commitment to the fight against impunity for wanton attacks on journalists and critics by the rich and powerful in Africa. We commend Anas Aremeyaw Anas for the tenacious fight to preserve his credibility and congratulate him on this resounding legal victory that, we hope, will deter future reckless smear campaigns against media professionals.
