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MEDIA SIEGE: Monitor Sues Govt for Ushs1.3Bn
Renegade Gen. David Sejusa’s letter caused the closure of Monitor for 10 days. Now the media house wants compensation worth Ushs 1.3bn
The media house wants government to pay Ushs 1.3bn it suffered for the closure of its Media outlets Daily Monitor, saying the story itself sufficed.
Police would move to court and obtain an order authorizing the force to make a search at the Monitor offices in a bid to retrieve the letter.
Court order rejected
In a lawsuit filed by Monitor’s lawyers Nangwala, Rezida and Company Advocates, the media house says Police overstepped the court order by sealing off its premises for ten days instead of retrieving Sejusa’s missive as the order had directed.
Even when the media house got another court order lifting the earlier search order and directing the police to leave, the force stayed put till they chose to vacate. This was not only contempt of court, Monitor argues, but the fragrant abuse of the lawful court order, made the media house lose up to more than 1.2bn in newspaper sales and adverts.
Monitor defends its publication of the controversial Sejusa missive, arguing it did so in line with its professional duty to disseminate news and that it offended no law under the code.
During the raid, which also affected the Namanve based Red Pepper media empire, Police reportedly ransacked computers and deleted Monitor’s useful info.
Red Pepper is yet to go to court and it remains to be seen whether they will follow suit and file its own case now that Monitor has done so.
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