Negative Comments Were Defamatory, Disheartening: FBC Boss Tells High Court

Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says that negative comments against him have been defamatory and disheartening.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum testified at the Civil High Court in Suva as he gave evidence in a defamation case he filed against former National Federation Party (NFP) provisional candidate, Feroz Gulam Mohammed.
“Negative comments about me, family; sibling, my character, integrity; and my responsibility to my organisation were defamatory and disheartening,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
Mohammed is alleged to have made defamatory claims against Mr Sayed-Khaiyum on a Facebook page that was accessible to a wide audience.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum is seeking damages, injunction, and costs in this case.
He was represented by lawyers Emmanuel Narayan and Sandeep Lal from Patel Sharma Lawyers while Mohammed, who was in New Zealand, was represented by lawyer Gavin O’Driscoll.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum sued Mohammed for posting articles claiming that he looted FBC while sharing a media article that wrote about FBC’s recorded losses between 2010 and 2015.
Mohammed was also sued for posting comments questioning the Prime Minister on why the majority of Muslims were getting highranked jobs in Government and that “people like Faiz Khan and Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum were failed humans given top jobs”.
The two articles were posted on Mohammed’s Facebook page on May 16 and July 17 in 2018.
Trial
The matter was called before Judge Justice Javed Mansoor at the trial on Wednesday.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum took the stand at the trial as the plaintiff’s first witness.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum testified that the articles described him as a corrupt and dishonest individual.
He said he worked his way up to earn his position and such degrading comments affected his reputation, family; and reputable company.
He further added that this case was of importance because, currently, these types of unregulated actions of people making defamatory comments against certain individuals on a domain that was accessed globally were common.
In cross-examination, Mr Sayed Khaiyum was asked whether his income was affected due to the comments made by Mohammed.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum told the court that his reputation was more important than his financial status.
Witness
The second witness was the head of the Digital Forensic Team, Police officer Samuela Finau.
He testified that the findings were that the Facebook page on which the comments were published belonged to Mohammed.
The third witness, FBC Director Human Resources Janice Singh told the court that on the day of the incident, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum was confined to his office and he was not his usual self.
She also testified that there were mixed feelings among the FBC staff and she had to conduct a oneon-one session with the staff for clarifications.