The Superior Court of New Jersey has awarded investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas $18 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit against former Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyapong, and Frederick Asamoah, a social media commentator.
The judgment comes after a lengthy legal battle stemming from alleged defamatory statements made by the defendants during a 2021 interview broadcast on social media.
The lawsuit, filed on May 17, 2022, in the Essex County Superior Court, accused Kennedy Agyapong and Frederick Asamoah of making false and damaging statements about Anas during an episode of “The Daddy Fred Show,” a popular online program targeting Ghanaian audiences in the United States.
The interview, which was streamed live on Facebook and other platforms, garnered over 29,000 views and contained several defamatory claims against Anas.
Anas, an investigative journalist known for exposing corruption and human rights abuses, argued that the defendants’ statements were part of a calculated effort to tarnish his reputation and discredit his work.