GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Jun 20, CMC – Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire Friday ruled that criminal defamatory libel is unconstitutional and violates the enshrined right to freedom of expression as she dismissed the case of criminal defamatory libel against the New York-based Guyanese political activist, Rickford Burke.
The Chief Justice said Section 115 of the Criminal Law Offences Act including conspiracy to commit such an offence is “unconstitutional as being in violation of Article 146 which guarantees freedom of expression.
“It is declared that the resort to criminal defamatory libel to protect individual reputation is unnecessary, disproportionately excessive and not justified and or required to protect reputations, rights and freedoms of other persons and are unconstitutional as being in violation of Article 146 which is the freedom of expression provision in our constitution,” she said.
The charge of criminal defamatory libel dates back to December 3, 2021, when the Guyana Police Force (GPF) issued a wanted bulletin for Burke, citing offences under various acts, including the Racial Hostility Act, Cyber Crime Act, and Criminal Law Offences Act.
(Details in Full News section)
CMC/2025