{"id":40711,"date":"2017-02-13T09:58:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T07:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=40711"},"modified":"2017-02-13T09:58:19","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T07:58:19","slug":"george-chaponda-sues-times-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2017\/02\/13\/george-chaponda-sues-times-group\/","title":{"rendered":"George Chaponda sues Times Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

B<\/strong>eleaguered Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, George Chaponda, is suing Blantyre Print and Packaging Limited, Blantyre Newspapers Limited and some of its staff in connection to stories and comments on the suspicious maize deal between Malawi and Zambia.<\/p>\n

The summons came two days before President Peter Mutharika\u2019s appointed Commission of Inquiry presented its report on the controversial maize deal on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The retired chief justice Anastasia Msosa-led commission found Chaponda\u2019s conduct in the deal \u201cmost inappropriate, suspicious and raising issues of corrupt practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a Civil Cause number 55 of 2017, Chaponda is claiming damages from Times Group\u2019s Editor-in-Chief and Malawi News<\/em>, Editor George Kasakula, The Daily Times <\/em>Editor Innocent Chitosi, The Sunday Times <\/em>Editor, Chachacha Munthali, Times Reporter Alick Ponje and The Daily Times <\/em>Assistant Editor Madalitso Musa.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the 28th day of January 2017, the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 6th defendants falsely and maliciously wrote and printed and published or caused to be written, printed and published on pages 1 and 2 of the 28th January to 3rd February 2017 issue of \u2018Malawi News\u2019 news paper defamatory words of and concerning the plaintiff,\u201d the summons reads in part.<\/p>\n

The summons also faults The Sunday Times <\/em>for positioning Chaponda\u2019s picture against the headline \u2018Epitome of Decadence\u201d on an opinion in the people which according to the documents was calculated to portray Chaponda as a morally rotten person.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy reason of the premises set out in paragraphs 13 and 14 hereof, the Plaintiff\u2019s image and reputation as a public official and individual has been lowered and brought into public scandal, Odium and contempt,\u201d the summons read.<\/p>\n

Chaponda has since claimed damages for libel, exemplary and aggravated damages for libel and legal costs.<\/p>\n

Kasakula has, however, said the group stands by all its stories and that it will not stop exposing the rot in government\u2019s dealings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand by all the stories and commentaries we have written on the maize scandal in general and Chaponda in particular. We have done nothing wrong. We firmly believe in telling Malawians how badly they are being governed and how badly their affairs on food are being managed by those they entrusted with power,\u201d Kasakula said, adding that \u201cWe will face Chaponda in court as he wishes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beleaguered Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, George Chaponda, is suing Blantyre Print and Packaging Limited, Blantyre Newspapers Limited and some of its staff in connection to stories and comments on the suspicious maize deal between Malawi and Zambia. The summons came two days before President Peter Mutharika\u2019s appointed Commission of Inquiry presented its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40715,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40711\/revisions\/40715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}