Lawyers acting on behalf of TAT have been instructed to write back after TAT received a letter from the lawyers of Environment Minister Rohey John Manjang, which was addressed to Kebba Ansu Manneh, a TAT reporter.
It would be recalled that based on an investigation into reports received from sources alleging that the Minister was involved in the sale of the remnants of the cut mahogany tree in Kaif and had directly benefited from it financially, TAT recently published a news story indicating.
Before publishing the story, TAT contacted the Minister and her Permanent Secretary to respond to the allegation, which the Minister refused to comment on, as TAT stated in the story.
Meanwhile, instead of responding to the allegation made against her, the Minister in her response threatened to sue for defamation should TAT go ahead and publish the story, saying she would sue the TAT reporter and “whoever participated in the publication…”.
In their letter, the Minister’s lawyers conveyed her denial, her request for an apology, and her threat to sue TAT for defamation if TAT did not retract.
TAT regards the Minister’s response as a threat, an act of intimidation, and an attempt at censorship.
TAT stands by its story, so TAT asked its lawyers to respond to the letter received from the Minister’s lawyers.
Trusting its sources, TAT published the story, believing that doing so was in the public and national Interest.
On behalf of the public for whom we engage in such investigative reporting, that is how matters stand on this issue at the moment.
