Defamation remains a criminal offence in Guyana (punishable with imprisonment).

The following are offences under Arts. 107-114 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act.

Defamatory libel is punished with imprisonment for up to one year and a fine.

Defamatory libel known to be false is punished with imprisonment for up to two years and a fine.

Defamatory libel with the purpose of extortion is punished with imprisonment for up to three years

Defamatory libel is defined as “matter published without any legal justification or excuse, designed to insult the person to whom it is published, or calculated to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule” (Art. 107).

Provisions on the books (seditious libel).

Seditious libel is a criminal offence under Art. 320 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act. The punishment is imprisonment for up to two years and a fine.

Provisions on the books (seditious libel).

Seditious libel is a criminal offence under Art. 320 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act. The punishment is imprisonment for up to two years and a fine.

Provisions on the books (seditious libel).

Seditious libel is a criminal offence under Art. 320 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act. The punishment is imprisonment for up to two years and a fine.

No provisions.

No provisions.

Provisions on the books.

Blasphemous libel is a criminal offence under Art. 347 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act. The punishment is imprisonment for up to one year.

Obscene libel

Selling or publishing matter is a criminal offence under Art. 351 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act. The punishment is imprisonment for up to two years.

The relevant law is the Defamation Act (1959). The Act does not define the terms defamation, libel or slander.

Damages

There are no caps on damages nor is there a requirement that damages be proportional to the harm caused.

Defences

The Defamation Act contains various defences, many of which are outdated forms of modern defences.

The Act does not contain a statutory defence of truth. It provides a defence of justification, which states that a defendant need not prove the truth of every allegation in a defamatory statement if the unproven allegations do not materially harm the plaintiff’s reputation (Art. 7).

The Act contains a defence of fair comment (Art. 8)

The Act contains a weakened defence of privilege. Fair and accurate reports of proceedings of a public meeting, government meetings (so long as these are accessible to the public and any newspaper reproter) and government publications are privileged unless the report was published with malice (Art. 14).

The Act does not provide defences of reasonable publication, public interest, innocent dissemination, qualified privilege or triviality.

Further, the Act explicitly states that a defamatory statement published “by or on behalf of a candidate” to a government or political office shall not enjoy privilege “on the ground that it is material to a question in issue in the election” (Art. 15).

The information contained in this database is for informational and advocacy purposes only. If you are a journalist facing a defamation claim, you should seek legal advice from a qualified attorney. However, if you are unable to find such an attorney, IPI may be able to assist you in doing so. Please contact us at ipi[at]freemedia.at.

Information on Guyana was last updated in September 2015.