The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
28 April 2008
Igunga CCM Member of Parliament Rostam Aziz has filed a case at the High Court of Tanzania against MwanaHalisi weekly paper and its publishers asking for Sh 3 billion compensation for an allegedly defamatory report.
In the case No. 53 of 2008 handled by Advocate K.M Fungamtama the legislator has lined up four respondents, the first being the editor of the Swahili weekly paper on defamatory allegations.
Others lined up as respondents into the case are Hali Halisi Publishers Limited Managing Director and the General Manager of Printech Company Limited. According to the affidavit, Hali Halisi Publishers Limited is the proprietor and publisher of MwanaHalisi while Printech is the newspaper's publisher.
Another defendant in the case is the general manager of Standard Printers Limited also being cited in the legal battle as the printer of the weekly paper.
The legislator complains that the paper published information that directly linked him with the embattled Richmond Development Company. The printing companies have been lined up in the list of defendants for printing information without checking its legal implications.
The complainant stated that printers were supposed to check the content if it had no elements of libel before printing it.
Reached for confirmation on the case the MP said: "I have indeed taken them to court and requested a speedy trial so that the truth is known the soonest." According to the counsel representing the MP, the information published by the newspaper conveyed a message that the plaintiff was an unimportant or irrelevant legislator.
The content of the publications also gave a meaning that the said legislator was corrupt, dishonest, immoral person who was not fit to be trusted.
Despite denouncing the claims over direct linkage through writings in the Parliament it has been always been claimed that the MP is among the shareholders in the beleaguered company.
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Rostam Aziz The content of the publications also gave a meaning that the said legislator was corrupt, dishonest, immoral person who was not fit to be trusted.
well, the whole iringa region know that he is one of the TOP SHARE HOLDER IN THE 'CORRUPTION COMPANY"