U.S. District Judge Lifting Prohibition, Lamothe vs. Leo Joseph of Haiti-Observateur

Back tracking on the ruling, Judge Ursula Ungaro lifted the ban on Joseph in a mea culpa in three parts and thereby granted the First Amendment rights to Joseph. Scott Ponce, the attorney of Leo Joseph, said that this ruling is favorable to all. Scott said, 'T'he First Amendment says you can't have an order prohibiting you from speaking on a subject. It was an important ruling to get the prior restraint set aside.'

The lawsuit that banned Joseph from writing on Lamothe and Baker in February was a default ruling because Joseph did not respond to the lawsuit or did not enter a plea and thus, both Lamothe and Baker asked for a default ruling. Judge Ungaro in her current ruling, which lifted the ban, asked Lamothe and Baker to provide rigid evidences against Joseph to prevent him from writing on them. Joseph on other hand, is still supporting his reporting in which he stated that Lamothe had set himself up for embezzling $25 million in the sale of Haitel - the telecommunications company.

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Read more: Laurent Lamothe, Media, Haiti Observateur, Journalist, Leo Joseph, Media

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