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  • 2 years ago
Calypsonian "Cro Cro", whose real name is Weston Rawlins has been ordered by the High Court to pay $250,000 in damages to businessman Inshan Ishmael for defamation of character.
Transcript
00:00 Calypsonian KroKro, whose real name is Weston Rawlins, has been ordered by the High Court
00:05 to pay $250,000 in damages to businessman Inshan Ismail for defamation of character.
00:12 The alleged defamation took place when Rawlins performed one of his songs titled "Another
00:17 Sat Us Outside Again" on stage during a competition in February last year.
00:22 In this song, Rawlins allegedly referred to Ismail, labelling him as a "thief from bamboo
00:27 village Valsin" who was selling stolen car parts.
00:31 In a 45-page judgment today, Justice Frank Sipisad found that KroKro had overstepped
00:36 the boundaries of free comment in the particular verse of his song.
00:41 While he ruled in Ismail's favour, Justice Sipisad dismissed some aspects of Ismail's
00:45 claim, stating that KroKro had all right to respond to earlier and specific comments the
00:50 businessman had made regarding celebration by members of the Bitham community when Kareem
00:54 Marcel, a member of the community, qualified as an attorney.
00:58 In addition to him having to pay damages, KroKro also has to pay Ismail's legal costs.
01:04 The businessman had also sued the copyright organisation of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:09 That lawsuit was dismissed and Ismail ordered to pay court's legal costs in defending the
01:14 claim.
01:15 In the lawsuit that was filed by attorney Richard Jagesa, Ismail claimed that because
01:20 of the lyrics he was being viewed as a criminal, a racist and a thief.
01:24 During the course of the trial, KroKro testified that he was singing of no one in particular
01:29 but was simply pointing out some of the unlawful acts that were being committed by some business
01:34 people in this country.
01:36 However, in his ruling, Justice Sipisad said that while KroKro did not make actual mention
01:42 of the name Inshan Ismail in the song, he subsequently admitted during a radio interview
01:46 after the claim was filed that he was in fact singing about Ismail and was able to cleverly
01:51 disguise Ismail's name.
01:56 In his ruling, the judge expressed the views that the art form of Calypso was dying, possibly
02:00 because members of the public were no longer willing to spend their hard-earned cash to
02:05 attend Calypso tents where they may feel insulted by lyrics.
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