Tanzanian media magnate defeated in landmark libel case against British citizen – By Magnus Taylor
Stewart Middleton and Sarah Hermitage on judgement day.
On Friday 30th
November 2012 a judgment was passed by Mr Justice Bean in a libel case
brought by Tanzanian media magnate Reginald Mengi and a British
solicitor, Sarah Hermitage. The judgment was in favour of Sarah
Hermitage who was being sued on account of 5 blog posts and 2 emails she
had written and made public concerning Mr Mengi’s influence over the
output of newspapers controlled by his company, IPP Media. Specifically,
this concerned an alleged defamatory campaign waged against Sarah
Hermitage and her husband Stewart Middleton following a legal dispute
with Reginald Mengi’s brother, Benjamin. Reginald Mengi claimed that he
“was not responsible, not accountable and not answerable” for the
editorial content of IPP publications. That claim was rejected by
Justice Bean, who ruled:
“I
find that the campaign in the Guardian and Nipashe [newspapers owned by
IPP Media] facilitated Benjamin’s corruption of local officials and
intimidation of the Middletons and thus helped Benjamin to destroy their
investments and grab their properties; and that Mr [Reginald] Mengi,
since he either encouraged or knowingly permitted the campaign, was in
that sense complicit in Benjamin’s corruption and intimidation. The
allegation is thus substantially true, and justified at common law.”
The Background
Sarah
Hermitage and Stewart Middleton moved to Tanzania in 2000. In 2004 they
bought the lease to the 550 acre Silverdale Farm from Benjamin Mengi – a
Tanzanian businessman and brother of Reginald Mengi. Middleton and
Hermitage set up an agricultural business on the land, employing around
150 local people. Subsequently, Benjamin Mengi disputed Middleton and
Hermitage’s acquisition of the lease, and the couple say he launched a
campaign of intimidation and harassment in order to force them off the
land. Details of Mr Middleton’s account of events, as recorded in the
case judgment, can be found reproduced in full on Sarah Hermitage’s
blog: http://thesilverdalecase.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/mengi-v-hermitage-2012-ewhc-3445-qb.html
In 2008 the couple fled Tanzania fearing for their lives after their
property was frequently trespassed upon, damaged and their key
operational Tanzanian staff were assaulted, arrested and imprisoned.
Whilst
no charges have been made under Tanzanian law on the alleged conduct of
Benjamin Mengi, or those employed by him in the Silverdale Farm
dispute, the basis for the libel case in question, as stated by Justice
Bean is that “I…approach this case on the basis that the Defendant’s
evidence about the Silverdale Farm dispute is true,” given the fact that
the evidence provided by her and Stewart Middleton – as included in
Justice Bean’s Judgement – remained “unchallenged” by Mr Mengi.
Sarah Hermitage’s blog
Hermitage
started blogging in 2009 about her and Middleton’s experiences in
Tanzania. The blogs were publicly displayed, and whilst Hermitage
suggests they did not receive a large audience, they were, in her own
words, to “[give] me a voice and…to warn other people to not to go
to Tanzania and not to invest, and thirdly, because the British
government is pouring copious amounts of money in to a country whose
President travels around the world spouting rhetoric of good governance
and upholding the rule of law, and there are some inconsistencies in
that rhetoric which I felt needed to be recorded.”
During
the libel proceedings, Hermitage stated that “The Tanzanians cut out
our hearts and hung them out to dry,” although in conversation she is
fiercely loyal to the staff who worked on their farm (“some of the
finest people you could ever hope to meet”) and with regards to Erick
Kabendera (more on him later) – a Tanzanian journalist who testified
during the proceedings – who she praised for his bravery in standing up
for entrenched economic interests which control the media in the
country.
The libel case
brought against Hermitage by Reginald Mengi focused on 5 separate blog
posts, four of which have now been removed from the Silverdale blog
site. Space prevents me from detailing all the specific claims made by
Hermitage about Mengi (all are available on the Silverdale blog here, begin at point 40.) Here are a few specific statements made by Hermitage:
On 5th
December 2009 Hermitage posted a piece entitled “Reginald Mengi – A
look into his mirror”, this post outlines the key details of Hermitage
and Middleton’s experiences related to Silverdale Farm and both Mengi
brothers. Hermitage states that following a meeting between Reginald
Mengi, Stewart Middleton and the then British High Commissioner to
Tanzania, Andrew Pocock, “IPP Media began a relentless campaign of
defamation against the investors.”
On 15th
Dec 2009 Hermitage published an article headed “Reginald Mengi, IPP
Media openly supports corruption” stating that “In November 2005
Reginald [Mengi] gave his personal assurances to the British government
[referring to the meeting between Mengi, Pocock (the British High
Commissioner) and Middleton in 2009] that IPP Media would not engage in
defamatory practises against the British investors in the Silverdale
case. He lied.”
On 31st
January 2010 Hermitage wrote that Middleton and she had been “driven
from Tanzania by violence, abuse and intimidation instigated by Benjamin
Mengi and facilitated by the police, judiciary and senior members of
the Tanzanian government.”
Two
emails were also cited, one to the Rev. Mark Hanson, and with a variety
of other individuals associated with the Lutheran church in Tanzania
copied in, and the second to Mr Amadou Mahter Ba, CEO of the Africa
Media initiative, copied in was Mr Linus Gitahi, CEO of the Nation Media
Group in Kenya. Both emails address Reginald Mengi’s supposed
hypocrisy, firstly owing to the fact that he is seen as a “staunch
follower of the Lutheran church in Tanzania”, whilst conducting a
defamation campaign against Hermitage and Middleton, seemingly counter
to the values of the church. The latter questioned whether it was
appropriate to appoint Reginald Mengi as co-chair of a “flagship” AMI
Forum held in Cameroon later that year given his newspapers’ alleged
conduct in relation to the Silverdale case.
Reginald Mengi’s newspapers
The
libel case brought by Reginald Mengi focused on Hermitage’s allegation
that he facilitated biased reporting on the Silverdale Farm case in
order to help his brother in his hour of need.
Reginald
Mengi, however, stated that allegations regarding the running of his
newspapers were untrue as he adopts a ‘hands off’ approach to this part
of his business life. Mr Mengi said, and there is no evidence to suggest
otherwise, that he hardly ever visits his newsrooms. He did however
admit that he has a press secretary (Mr Njovu) who does, issuing press
releases on his behalf.
In
his judgment, Justice Bean stated that, with reference to the Silverdale
case, “there was no dispute between counsel that the series of
articles, mostly though not always written by Jackson Kimambo [a
journalist working for the IPP newspaper, Nipashe], gave a slanted and
partisan account wholly supportive of Benjamin. The dispute is over why this was so.”
The
journalist, Mr Kimambo, did not testify in the case, Justice Bean
stating that “the claimant’s failure to adduce any evidence from him is
very striking.” Mr Luhanga, an editor at Nipashe, did testify
through a translator, but his testimony with regards to all 5 of the
articles in question covering the Silverdale case was simply a
reproduction a of a model text detailing an editorial process (this can
be viewed in point 80 of the judgment).
Justice Bean described this evidence as “mechanistic” and judged that
it was not an actual recollection of an editorial meeting or process,
but a description of what “usually happened or was supposed to happen.”
From
this evidence Justice Bean concluded that: “there is only one realistic
explanation for the one-sided coverage of the Silverdale Farm dispute
in the Guardian and Nipashe: namely that Mr Mengi had appointed
a loyal team of editors who lay down the party line, with his approval
that nothing is to be published which criticises the Executive Chairman
or his family.”
Justice
Bean later goes on to state that “…I am left in no doubt that Mr Mengi
encouraged the campaign in his newspapers to praise his brother and
denigrate the Middletons.”
Testimony from a Tanzanian journalist
In
November 2012 I met with Erick Kabendera, a witness in the libel
proceedings, who had worked at the IPP paper the Guardian, between 2009
and 2010 (he is a former winner of a David Astor Journalism Awards scholarship
to work in the UK at The Independent and The Times). In Kabendera’s
evidence he said that he had initially been advised by friends not to
testify against Reginald Mengi as they thought “[he did] not need to
fight with him [Mengi], because the repercussion (sic) of that could end
your career.” During the court proceedings, and in person throughout
our interview, Kabendera made the argument that Reginald Mengi’s
influence on what journalists at the Guardian published on a day-to-day
basis was pervasive.
Kabendera
alleges that at editorial meetings (which he attended) “it was made
clear (to you) that the newspaper’s editor wanted stories to run on the
front page relating to the claimant [Reginald Mengi], including on his
war on corruption, reporting favourably on statements made by allies of
the claimant.”
Kabendera also recounted how Abdul Hamid Njovu, Reginald Mengi’s ‘press advisor’ would often come to the newsroom at the Guardian
“to say Mr Mengi would be having an important event and that we needed
to send a good journalist, an experienced journalist”.
Kabendera
also asserts that on joining the newspaper he had been informed that
“the IPP Guardian would not publish any negative stories about mining in
Tanzania “because the claimant had substantial interests in the
industry””, although this point is somewhat weakened by the evidence of
an extensive feature article published in the paper on the subject of
poisoned water coming from a mine run and owned by Barrick Gold (a
mining firm operating in Tanzania.)
A similar and better supported claim was made regarding slanted coverage of the President. A memorandum of 16th
October 2008 from Mr Kiondo Mshana, Managing editor of the Guradian, to
Sakina Datoo, then IPP Print Media Group’s Editorial Director (copied
to Mr Nguma – Director of Guardian Ltd), stated: “You will recall my
having officially notified you recently that it is absolutely necessary
for my advice to be sought before any of The Guardian Limited
publications runs controversial or any otherwise sensitive stories on
President Jakaya Kikwete.”
He
continues: “I take this opportunity to state that this remains the
Company’s official stand…” The inclusion of ‘remains’ suggests that this
policy was long-standing, and not simply implemented on an ad-hoc
basis.
Taken from
Kabendera’s witness statement, he asserts that “It was common knowledge
amongst journalists at the IPP Guardian that the claimant would be
generous if they carried out his wishes…”
Kabendera
cites these allegations of corruption against Reginald Mengi as being
“common knowledge” in media circles in Tanzania. He even states that
“this is not considered as corruption…I have met so many other
reporters…who have admitted in public gathering…that at one point in
their career …they have gone to Mr Reginald Mengi’s office, begged for
money or given money for different reasons and it is common knowledge.”
Kabendera’s
evidence, particularly this last point, was aggressively challenged
under cross-examination, but his general commentary on the media
environment in Tanzania, delivered to me in a non-legal context,
revealed a number of interesting assertions about the state of the press
in the country.
He restated the point that “it is common knowledge in Tanzania that Mengi interferes with his media”. At the Guardian “no significant editorial decision is made without consulting Mengi.”
Tanzania
was, for many years, considered to be a less interesting African
country relative to, for example, its more volatile neighbour, Kenya.
However, Kabendera argues that this allowed room for powerful interests
to, almost unnoticed, do what they wanted. Journalism remains a
relatively low-status and poorly paid profession, and it is difficult to
keep young, dedicated journalists in the profession.
As
Tanzania goes through something of a transformative period, in which
its offshore gas finds come on-stream, it is going to need a robust ‘4th
estate’ in order to objectively report the development of commercial
deals in the sector. Unfortunately, no such resource exists.
The
judgment in the Mengi-Hermitage case cannot be said to be definitive in
its assessment of the media environment in Tanzania. However, it does
suggest that powerful economic interests are able to manipulate the
functioning of the press in their own particular fiefdoms. The
Mengi-Hermitage case does little to suggest the sort of open and
independent media environment exists that is able to hold truth to
power.
Magnus Taylor is Managing Editor, African Arguments Online.
African Arguments has previously published Sarah Hermitage’s commentary on Tanzanian affairs.
Reginald Mengi declined to comment when approached.
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