Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has been awarded $18 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit against former Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyapong and social media commentator Frederick Asamoah.
The judgment, delivered by the Superior Court of New Jersey, comes after a protracted legal battle over allegedly defamatory statements made by Agyapong and Asamoah during a 2021 online interview on The Daddy Fred Show, a program popular among Ghanaian audiences in the United States.
According to court filings, Anas sued the defendants on May 17, 2022, in the Essex County Superior Court, arguing that they had falsely accused him of criminal activities, including being responsible for the 2019 murder of Ahmed Suale, an undercover journalist who worked with Anas on the explosive documentary Number 12.
The interview, streamed on Facebook and other platforms, attracted over 29,000 views and contained multiple allegations, including claims that:
Anas was a criminal convicted of crimes in Ghana.
He orchestrated the murder of Ahmed Suale.
He was responsible for the deaths of multiple Chinese nationals in Ghana.
He was a thief, blackmailer, and extortionist.
Anas, renowned for his hard-hitting investigative journalism exposing corruption and human rights abuses, argued that these statements tarnished his reputation and sought damages for defamation.
In a surprising turn, however, the court criticized Anas’s investigative methods, controversially stating that his work resembled “investigative terrorism” and that Agyapong’s descriptions of him as “blackmailer, corrupt, extortionist, and evil” were not entirely unjustified.
Following the ruling, Kennedy Agyapong’s legal team has filed a remittitur request, seeking a reduction of the damages awarded.