Justice Navindra Singh has ruled that the defamation suit which photographer Keron Bruce filed against social media commentator Mikhail “Guyanese Critic” Rodrigues should be thrown out because it failed to produce adequate evidence “why it is defamatory to be identified as “Mudwata”.
Last February, Bruce filed a Statement of Claim (SoC) in which he sought damages in excess of $101M over false statements Rodrigues made via his Facebook page in which he asserted that he, Bruce was the person behind the animated character “Mudwata”.
But, in a ruling issued Friday, Justice Singh held, “[Bruce’s] case is deficient in both pleadings and evidence to enable the court to decide as to whether he suffered any warranted harm to his reputation by [Rodrigues] stating that he is “Mudwata” or whether being identified as “Mudwata” would tend to have a substantially adverse effect on the way persons treated [him].”
Similarly, Rodrigues’s counterclaim, in which he alleged that Bruce through the character “Mudwata”, published that he was a homosexual, was also dismissed.
Since Bruce has denied being “Mudwata”, Justice Singh said that the court had to determine whether Rodrigues has established on a “balance of probability” that Bruce is “Mudwata”.
According to the Judge, the only evidence advanced by Rodrigues in this regard is that he and Bruce had a conversation in 2017 in whereby Bruce stated that he wanted to create a cartoon character by the name of “Mudwata”. However, in light of Bruce’s denial and Rodrigues being the only witness in support of his case, the Judge ruled that Rodrigues failed to provide any evidence linking Bruce to the YouTube channel “Guyana Uncut” where the “Mudwata” character appears.
Consequently, both matters were dismissed and no orders were made as to costs.
Bruce had claimed that on January 29, 2022, Rodrigues, while vacationing in Barbados, made several false and defamatory statements about him on a Facebook Live which attracted 761 comments, 933 reactions, 33,000 views, and was shared 91 times. Maintaining that he and the “Mudwata” character are not “one and the same”, Bruce had said that Rodrigues has not presented any credible evidence to the contrary and therefore this cannot be “a matter of fact”.
He had also denied having any engagement with Rodrigues, whom he described as a “self-proclaimed social media influencer”. The photographer alleged that Rodrigues’ utterances were for the sole purpose of increasing views, followers, reactions, and for his own personal clout.
Bruce had averred that the comments had caused irrevocable damage to his reputation and subjected him to public ridicule, contempt, hatred, and embarrassment, and had also brought his career as a photographer with the Miss World Guyana Organisation, into disrepute.
Bruce had deposed that his 16-year-old son had also suffered ridicule and bullying from his peers as a result of the “bold” statements made by Rodrigues, who had also accused him of taking photographs of young women and using them in a derogatory manner.
Dismissing the statements as baseless, malicious, and grossly inaccurate, the photographer had submitted that they were “calculated” for Rodrigues to increase monetary gains. He added that his reputation is critical to his profession and suggestions of involvement in any such conduct as alleged by a self-proclaimed social media influencer, was detrimental to his career.
Moreover, Bruce had told the High Court that he was fearful so much for his life that he had to hire a 24-hour security service for himself and his family because Rodrigues had threatened that he “would show up” at his home and go live on Facebook.
Bruce was represented by lawyers, Anastasia Sandford and Tamieka Clarke while Attorneys-at-Law Marcel Bobb and Esther Osborne appeared for Rodrigues.
Meanwhile, the Police have charged Bruce with a cybercrime over the social media cartoon character “Mudwata” and he has been granted $100,000 bail pending a trial.
It is alleged that on January 25, 2021, at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD), he used a computer to disseminate information about Journalist Leroy Smith, knowing same to be false, subjecting him to public ridicule, contempt, hatred, and embarrassment.
