00:00the philip alexander mikhaila panday dispute dates back to july 2020 during the campaign for
00:07the general election philip alexander then leader of the progressive empowerment party published a
00:13facebook live video on his personal page and the party's page in the broadcast alexander commented
00:20on the patriotic front's decision to withdraw from the 2020 general elections among other things he
00:28alleged that mikhaila panday had taken money to split the vote panday subsequently filed a
00:33defamation lawsuit against alexander with a case heard in the high court before justice davindra
00:40rampasad in november 2023 the judge found the statements defamatory and ordered alexander to pay
00:47panday six hundred thousand dollars in general damages and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
00:54in exemplary damages which brought the damages award to eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars
01:00alexander was also ordered to pay ninety seven thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars in legal
01:06costs inching the overall financial liability to almost one million dollars the facebook video
01:14remained online for a period after it was published according to the judgment the post had more than
01:2024 000 views hundreds of likes and comments and hundreds of shares within days of its publication
01:26alexander subsequently appealed the high court's decision which is now before the court of appeal
01:32today's hearing was expected to advance the appeal but there was a separate issue before the court
01:38concerning whether the proceedings should be live streamed an objection was raised to the live
01:44streaming of the matter and that remains under consideration by the court consequently there was no live
01:50streaming of today's proceedings and rather than proceeding with the scheduled hearing the matter has
01:56been rescheduled to december 17th or vishita murray rupnarein tv6 news
