Wednesday 16 June 2010

Nice win for 7Days

It's won two separate libel cases - link here:
In the first, Vincent Antia sought to claim dhs1 million over articles he alleged featured both true and fabricated information about his family.

The articles reported how his wife, Sally Antia, had been arrested for having an affair with a male friend. She was later sentenced to one month in prison.

Antia’s claim was dismissed by the courts, which said: "the press has a vital and effective role in directing society and thus it should have sufficient freedom of expression and should consider the public right to information".

In the second case, Ehab Ibrahim Mohamed Al Labban had claimed for dhs5 million for similar reasons. His wife, Marnie Pearce, was sentenced to six months in prison followed by deportation for having an affair, which she denied.

7DAYS published articles on the case.

Al Labban claimed the articles were defamatory, but the court dismissed the claim.

Anyone got any more juice on this?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

new thread? anyone know the inside track in ENG - i heard there was a "major development" yesterday (ie gone under). Can anyone confirm?

Anonymous said...

The Media Factory today laid off most of its staff today leaving only Russell Frame and the cleaners.
Is this the end of the road for Dubai's self proclaimed 3rd biggest publisher?
Even the sales director and board member Chris Shaw was asked to leave as the company struggles to meet in salary obligations.
With the spectacular failure of the Dubai Mall magazine it seems this exercise in vanity publishing has come to an end.
Goodbye TMF you will be missed.

Anonymous said...

No more juice on that one but I did just receive this from TMF:

16th June 2010 – The Media Factory FZ LLC (TMF) announced today that it has initiated an internal restructure which will ensure it remains profitable. The company will continue to publish all the magazines that are produced out of their DMC office, however restructuring has become necessary due to a lacklustre Q2 and the anticipated lean period over the summer months. The well documented trouble in Thailand has also affected the company’s balance sheets (TMF publishes Sawasdee, The Thai Airways Inflight magazine) with advertiser sentiment being badly damaged. Richard Paton, Managing Director, said, “We have to remain realistic. Our industry has not witnessed the recovery that others have experienced. Though signs are encouraging moving forward, we need to be in a position to capitalize on the better times that I firmly believe are around the corner.”

The company also confirmed that a number of people have been let go in order to pave the way for the final phase of the restructuring. Paton added, “Regrettably we have had to let some valued staff go which is very hard to do. However our main focus has to be on ensuring that the company is on a sound and stable footing so that we can continue to deliver results to our advertisers and readers.”

Anonymous said...

If Dubai Courts are saying
"the press has a vital and effective role in directing society and thus it should have sufficient freedom of expression and should consider the public right to information"
.. this sounds great !


I´m asking myself why a member of the Roy.. Fam.. Maktoum Hasher from Al Fajer is running to a Court in USA filing a case and claiming a damage of 20 Million Dollar , for mental stress and whatever fantasy damages ?????????????
Link:
http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit.asp?id=52370

Link:
http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit-documents.asp?id=52370

Under the false argument "Trademark" infringement, filing such a case, and by this misleading an US Court , for funneling out over subpoena`s to -blogger and wordpress - sensitive data from Bloggers....all this for the use of further extortion toseveral private persons... what a wonderfull world is this ????

And what a wonder: His so called junior HH... Business Partner Kabir Mulchandi celebrate the same act already in 2008 !

Link: https://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit.asp?id=41835

Link:
https://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit-documents.asp?id=41835

Have you known that they are Twins via a get together party over this same US Lawyer?

However:
It starts with this article in The National

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080908/BUSINESS/984362566/1005