End of the road for SA’s gritty investigative magazine?
Noseweek, which has lampooned SA's rich and infamous for almost three decades, may be forced to close following a damning court ruling.
It’s an extraordinary development considering the irreverent magazine has exposed and/or toppled many rogues.
The publication, which has always punched well above its weight, finally met its match last month when it lost a defamation case in the Western Cape High Court brought against it by Leonard Katz, a director of law firm Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs.
Katz is a respected senior attorney of many years’ standing, and specialises in insolvency law, corporate rescue and recoveries.
Editor Martin Welz and publisher, Chaucer Publications, were ordered to pay R330 000 in damages.
Weltz said that ‘the liquidation issue has become very ugly’ and the case marks one of the highest awards ever made by a South African court for defamation.
No costs bills have yet been submitted, but Katz’s are expected to total well in excess of R1m and Noseweek as a print publication is unlikely to survive.
Welz told subscribers in an e-mail that the magazine might only publish the online version in future, notes Business Report.
‘As much as some people are undoubtedly pleased to see us gone, many more have said they will miss their monthly Noseweek ‘fix’ arriving in their postbox,’ Welz said in the e-mail.
However, he told subscribers that Noseweek intended to appeal the findings.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
