Attorney pursuing available and necessary action against blogger
Defamation lawsuit filed by Shanzi and Nino
Published:Monday | May 15, 2023 | 8:56 AM
Attorney-at-law Britney-Lee Johnson, of the law firm Makhijani & Johnson, which represents socialites and business people Shanice ‘Shanzi’ Adair and Jermaule ‘Nino’ Adair, is cautioning bloggers to be careful of what they post online. This following a defamation suit filed by the couple against Charmanique Hinds, the operator of @Newscentree on Instagram.
Shanzi and Nino retained representation from Makhijani & Johnson following the posting of unproven allegations by @Newscentree on Instagram. According to Johnson, the couple made attempts to have the matter resolved through a removal of the post and a public apology. However, when this was not forthcoming in the given time, they eventually filed suit against Hinds in the Supreme Court.
“With online blogging and persons having smartphones with accessibility to Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of that, persons are taking on the role of journalists online and so they are social bloggers. What we see happening is that there seems to be an increase in people having these mass [followings] on Instagram, in particular, and before fact-checking any information, they just go on and post it all around. Persons who are using social media as a blog or any kind of news source should be very careful to fact-check, be very careful to have sources and be very careful to check out information that they see people saying is a lie,” Johnson said.
According to her, operation via the World Wide Web does not exempt anyone from the full force of the law when it comes to defamation.
“Now we are seeing that persons can sue the blog. You are not immune from a lawsuit because it is online. One could argue that it is even worse in this day and age because the thing about social media is that the damage can never truly be undone. So we are reaching not only persons young and old but everyone who uses social media,” Johnson shared.
Noting that these situations happen frequently, Johnson advised that the court is willing to listen to anyone who has “suffered loss or embarrassment” due to defamatory statements and Jamaicans should not be afraid to take legal action.
An apology was posted to @Newscentre_ on Instagram, the confirmed backup account for @Newscentree.
The screenshot read, “I, Charmanique Hinds, owner of the Newscentree on Instagram page, would like to publicly apologize to Shanice Adair (@shanzi.a) and Jermaule Adair (@nino_tns).” It no longer appears on the @Newscentre_ Instagram account, which was created in July 2022 and has more than 12,000 followers.
Johnson said that with the apology requested of Hinds to the celebrity couple no longer appearing on the account, she is under strict instructions by her clients to follow through on all available and necessary legal action.
When contacted by The Gleaner, Hinds, the operator of the Instagram pages @newscentree and @newscentre_, said she posted the apology to @newscentre_, her backup account on Friday as she no longer had access to @newscentree. However, due to the challenges of allegedly having both pages reported, the post was removed from @newscentre_ by Instagram. She said she did not delete the post.
“It has been really challenging to remain in the online space because persons have been reporting both pages so most times Instagram would restrict certain activities,” Hinds said.
She said despite the claimants’ request that the post be pinned to her Instagram page for a year, she believes that with the constant circulation of the post, the apology has served its intended purpose. “I think that based on what is going on now with social media, it has done its intended effect. It has been circulating all over and I think that is what it was supposed to do,” Hinds said, adding that with the uncertainty of the platform’s regulations, she could not guarantee that the post would remain on the page for the length of time requested and is fine should the claimants pursue further legal action.
“They can, it is within their right to do so. I do not have a problem. I have relevant screenshots that it was indeed on the page and shared on multiple social media platforms so I guess when they bring it to Supreme Court, the judge can decide whether or not it goes further. But I think the intention was served. It was posted on my page,” said Hinds.