Libel v Slander A Critical Look at TeeBliz and Tiwa's Case

I will make this write up as short as i can, so i do not bore you. What you must know is that Libel and slander are types of defamatory statements. Libel is a written defamatory statement, and slander is a spoken or oral defamatory statement. In this article, we'll look at where you might find a defamatory statement, provide some different examples of libel and slander, and more.




Before we look at a few examples of potentially defamatory statements, let’s first think about places where you could see such statements. These days, the most common places for making possibly libelous (written) statements are:

• letters to the editor of local newspapers
• public comments on media (i.e., newspaper or magazine) web sites
• blog posts
• comments to blog posts, and
• internet chat rooms or listservers.

In reality, you won’t see too many potentially libelous comments in published written letters to the editor because editors are generally very careful in screening out such letters. It is on the internet where people can get into trouble with libel. While some web sites screen posts for inflammatory or illegal content, the screening systems are not geared to examine every post for libelous content.

Remember that slander is an oral defamatory statement, so those statements can be made anywhere and to anyone -- as long as it's to a third party, meaning someone other than the person who is allegedly being defamed. If you tell your best friend something defamatory about person X, person X could sue you for defamation if he/she could prove that he/she was damaged as a result of your statement.

In Tiwa and Teebliz case, 

Let’s say that you write or tell some people, “I think that TeeBliz stole money from me” ''or i saw him sniffing cocaine and taking drugs'' This seems more like an opinion than a statement of fact -- remember that an opinion can’t be defamatory. After all, you qualified it by saying “I think that” TeeBliz stole the money or i saw him sniffing cocaine and taking drugs and defamatory statements must be statements of fact. Unfortunately, just saying or writing “I think” doesn’t automatically convert a statement of fact into a statement of opinion.

But If you are talking to people who trust and believe you, you are a role model to people who look up to you and who know that you don’t joke around, they are very likely to believe you and thus believe that TeeBliz stole money from you and that he actually is on drugs. Thus, if TeeBliz did not steal any money from you and he never takes drugs, you have slandered Him. You need to be arrested.

This is because a jury will be instructed to examine the allegedly defamatory statement in the totality of the circumstances in which it was said or written in order to determine whether an alleged statement of opinion is in fact defamatory. Under the law, a statement of fact in one context can be considered to be a statement of opinion in another context.

Same applies to Teebliz allegation of infidelity against Tiwa. Both of them should be ready to sue eachother or forever keep their mouths shut.

These are my opinions, Whats yours... (Lawyers are invited to throw more light on this, so our celebrities could be enlightened more on the speech they make in public or what they write on their social media.