Ex- Uganda Bureau of Statistics Executive Director, Francis Mashate has dragged Vision Group CEO Robert Kabushenga and one of the company\u2019s titles to court and is now seeking Shs1bn in damages over alleged defamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to court papers seen by this publication, Mashate\nwho also serves as Bamasaba Cultural Institution\u2019s Prime Minister, alleges\nthrough his lawyers of KSMO Advocates, that The\nSaturday<\/em> Vision<\/em>, on December 22nd<\/sup>,\n2018, published reports that were defamatory, malicious and injured his good\nreputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe plaintiff\u2019s action against the Defendants, jointly,\nand\/or severally, is for recovery of general and exemplary damages for libel, a\ndeclaratory order that by publishing the impugned materials about the\nPlaintiff, the Defendants are practicing irresponsible and unprofessional\njournalism at the expense of the Plaintiff\u2019s reputation and good name; a permanent\ninjunction restraining the Defendants from further publication of similar\ndefamatory statements against the Plaintiff, interest on all pecuniary awards\nand the costs of this suit,\u201d particulars of the case filed last month in the\nHigh Court, Kampala, reads in part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suit adds, \u201cThe defendants published the article with\nmalice and an intention to tarnish the name of the plaintiff. The defamatory\npublication depicted and portrayed the plaintiff as a thief, cheat criminal,\nracketeer, corrupt person, Mafioso, unpatriotic, unworthy leader, money\nlaunderer, gangster leader, international crook, heister, thug, dubious person\nand all such unsavoury descriptions of a dishonest and criminally minded person.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the publication that is set to cause the industrial area\nbased media house problems, the paper alleged that Mashate and others are under\nprobe by the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) over alleged money\nlaundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DETAILS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The story titled, \u201cISO\nPROBES SHS250B MONEY LAUNDERING<\/strong>,\u201d alleged that Mashate together with Paul\nBambata Musinguzi, Abigail Hanan aka Ahmed Hana, were involved in a syndicate\nof government officials that would receive money from abroad after it\ndisappeared from government coffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe source noted that unscrupulous high profile government\nofficials were siphoning billions of shillings, which they wire to accounts of\nshell companies out of the country, before the money returns to Uganda,\u201d the\nstory claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story further claimed that Mashate heads the group while\nHanan helps in the transfer of an IT specialist and that the three had been\narrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The publication goes on to give details of the banks where\nthe monies were wired from in the United States and in Uganda, the instalments\nbanked, the companies involved, the beneficiaries, the arrests made, persons\ninvolved based abroad, the countries where money is wired to and from, and the\nresponses of officials from government and private entities who all dismissed\nthe story as fake, untrue or could not confirm its veracity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his suit, Mashate contends that Vision Group went ahead\nwith publication of the said story despite advice from the Financial\nIntelligence Authority (FIA) which had informed them that the documents they\nhad against him and other officials were fake. He adds that Vision Group\nabandoned all standard professional rules that govern journalism in publishing\nthe said story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe defendants were unprofessional in not conferring with\nthe plaintiff before publishing the unresearched and baseless content. The\nplaintiff further avers that by defendants\u2019 wide coverage, and reference to the\npublication by other media, the plaintiff was contacted by many people who know\nhim; his family, friends, the wider community and business associates about the\ntruthfulness of the article and some were worried about his life and freedom\nsince the article depicts him as a criminal,\u201d the suit adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mashate now wants Vision Group to pay him a cool shs1bn in\ndamages to his name and reputation. He is also asking court to place a\npermanent injunction against Kabushenga and the whole New Vision restraining\nthem from further publication of similar defamatory statements against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In January, KSMO Advocates, served Vision Group with a\nnotice of intention to sue but this it appears, fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur instructions are firstly, to demand that you cause to\npublish an apology retracting wholly the defamatory article on Page 1 of yout\nnewspaper the content of which has to be approves by our client before\npublication, and further, that you pay Ushs. 1, 000, 000, 000\/= (Uganda\nShillings One Billion Only) as punitive and general damages to atone for the\ndefamation and the legal expenses to be mutually negotiated. Should the above\nnot be met by you in the next ten days, our client shall proceed to file a\ncivil suit against you, jointly and\/or severally for defamation,\u201d the notice\nreceived by New Vision legal department on the 7th<\/sup> of January reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not clear when the case will come to court for mention,\nhowever, what\u2019s clear is that the industrial based media house will have to\nanswer why they abandoned professional journalism standards to \u2018defame\u2019\nMashate, according to his suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ex- Uganda Bureau of Statistics Executive Director, Francis Mashate has dragged Vision Group CEO Robert Kabushenga and one of the company\u2019s titles to court and is now seeking Shs1bn in damages over alleged defamation. According to court papers seen by this publication, Mashate who also serves as Bamasaba Cultural Institution\u2019s Prime Minister, alleges through his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":8786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n