JLP urges PNP to treat Campbell defamation settlement as a lesson on platform speech

The Jamaica Labour Party is calling on the People's National Party to treat the recently settled defamation action against PNP General Secretary Dr. Dayton Campbell as a lesson in how politicians speak on the campaign trail.

The dispute was settled before trial last week. As part of the resolution, Dr. Campbell issued a public apology.

Jamaica Labour Party Member of Parliament Daryl Vaz brought the claim in August 2023. It arose from remarks Dr. Campbell made the month before at the PNP's Clarendon Northwestern annual conference.

The JLP argued that a public apology from the party's general secretary over misleading and inaccurate claims was a poor look, and that the episode should not be used for political score-settling. The party said politicians on all sides sometimes choose words on platforms they would later phrase differently.

At the same time, the JLP framed the apology as a moment for the PNP to reflect, contending that the party's de facto chief executive had apologised amid what the JLP described as a pattern of false, inaccurate, and misleading narratives pushed into the public sphere in pursuit of political power.