A teacher has won part of a violation of privacy and defamation case about a newspaper report on wrong medication that was dispensed to him by a pharmacy at Rundu.
The teacher, Fillipus Kavera, won part of the case when judge Beatrix de Jager found in a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court on Tuesday that an article published in The Namibian in November 2022 breached his right to privacy.
De Jager ordered The Free Press of Namibia, which is the company owning The Namibian, to pay N$30 000 to Kavera for violating his dignity and privacy.
The judge also ordered The Free Press of Namibia to retract the article over which Kavera sued the newspaper, to delete the article from The Namibian’s website, and to apologise to Kavera in writing.
De Jager dismissed Kavera’s defamation claim against the newspaper, though.
Kavera sued The Namibian’s editor, Tangeni Amupadhi, The Free Press of Namibia and the newspaper’s printer, Word Press Namibia, for N$300 000.
He claimed N$150 000 from the three defendants for allegedly violating his right to privacy, and also claimed N$150 000 for alleged defamation.
The three defendants opposed his claim.
In the article that left Kavera feeling aggrieved, it was reported that his lawyer, Bernhard Tjatjara, had sent a letter to Kavmed Pharmacy at Rundu, demanding the pharmacy pay Kavera N$1 million.
The demand for the payment was based on allegations that Kavera had been prescribed medication by a doctor, and that instead of giving that medication to his wife when she visited the pharmacy, she was given different medication. Kavera was thereafter injected with the wrong medication.
De Jager found in her judgement that Kavera did not consent to the publication of the letter of demand that his lawyer sent to the pharmacy.
“He never discussed with Tjatjara that he could share his personal information with a journalist or any other person,” De Jager said.
She also remarked: “If Tjatjara shared the information with the [newspaper], he did so without the plaintiff’s consent and permission, and he was not acting on his behalf in doing so.”
She noted that the article that was published was largely an accurate reproduction of Tjatjara’s letter of demand.
However, it was undisputed that medical information in the letter of demand was private, De Jager said.
“It is every person’s right to keep such facts private,” she stated. “People may do so for many reasons, even if it is to shield them against often cruel and disrespectful fellow humans.”
Although Kavera was not the subject of critical reporting in the article, he should have been consulted and his consent should have been obtained before publication, given that his rights to dignity and privacy were affected, De Jager also said.
In addition to that, Tjatjara had to obtain Kavera’s consent before he shared his letter of demand with a reporter, the judge said.
She concluded that no case was proven against Amupadhi, who was sued in his personal capacity, and against the company printing The Namibian.
Kavera is also suing Kavmed Pharmacy for N$1 million in a case filed at the Windhoek High Court in November 2022.
Kavera was represented by legal counsel Eva Shifotoka and Saraphina Paulus in the case heard by De Jager.
The defendants were represented by Uno Katjipuka-Sibolile.
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