Character ‘massacred’

Legal action to proceed against Peter Ram for defaming iWeb, Khiomal, despite apology

By Sheria Brathwaite

 

The legal troubles of veteran entertainer Peter Ram are mounting with a second calypsonian set to sue him for defamation.

The promoters of the event where the performer, whose real name is Peter Wiggins, sang the controversial lyrics have also found themselves in the lawyers’ crosshairs.

A day after King’s Counsel Michael Lashley said that Ian iWeb Webster had retained him to take legal action against Wiggins over his freestyle during a performance at Soca Junction, the lawyer confirmed to Barbados TODAY that he is also now representing Khiomal Nurse who was also mentioned in the song.

The decision to proceed with legal action came despite a public apology from Wiggins on social media.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Lashley and his associates, including Zudie Payne, Sadé Harris and Simon Clarke, said Wiggins’ post was not an apology but a statement and their clients were still pursuing lawsuits.

The lawyers said the promoters of Soca Junction at which Wiggins performed last Friday at the Kensington Mall Arena, also had a role to play and action would be brought against them as well.

During his performance, Wiggins broke into a freestyle which mentioned Webster and Nurse. Video of the performance went viral on social media and Wiggins received harsh criticism in some quarters.

Lashley said the defamatory comments had injured his clients’ reputation and “it is necessary for us to follow our clients’ instructions and take this matter beyond a pre-action protocol letter for damages and injury caused to his reputation”.

Harris noted that both Webster and Nurse had made invaluable contributions to the development of the island’s entertainment industry and Crop Over.

“So we have men of good character whose character was borderline massacred by Mr Wiggins. Mr Wiggins has issued a statement and while he did acknowledge that his statements were damaging in nature, he only refers to two people, which is NCF [National Cultural Foundation] and Mr Webster, but he has failed to acknowledge that this also had an effect on Mr Nurse as well. And that is something that I think cannot be ignored and will be addressed when Mr Wiggins is served with the relevant pre-action protocol letters,” she said.

While stressing that she could not delve into the details of the legal action, Harris noted that “certain measures have already been put in place” to have letters served to Wiggins and the promoters.

In his apology, Wiggins had said he regretted “if an offence has been caused to the artists named during my freestyle performance”, stressing that having travelled all over the world representing Barbados, he would “never intentionally do anything to disrespect the NCF”.

He explained that he was “upset” with the lyrics in Webster’s recently released social commentary in which he says “when the Foundation (NCF) can come with a future plan it has to include Edwin, Rick and Ram, that decision seems like favouritism”.

Wiggins admitted he did not handle the situation in the best way.

“I responded to what I felt was unwarranted criticism of not just myself but two other soca icons who will also celebrate 40 years this Crop Over. On reflection, I could have dealt with it differently lyrically but with freestyle sometimes lyrics come out in the heat of the moment,” he said. “All in all, no bad vibes.”

However, Lashley questioned if the incident really happened in “the heat of the moment”, as he showed promotional material that was forwarded on WhatsApp suggesting that Wiggins had intended to retaliate to Webster’s song at the event last Friday.

The senior counsel said the promoters were to be blamed as well because they had not issued a statement, to date, distancing themselves from Wiggin’s performance.

Despite the controversy, Lashley said he did not think it would impact the 2023 Crop Over Festival negatively.

“I think what it can do in the long run is to set standards of conduct for entertainers. We have no issue with someone singing about somebody; it has been done historically. But when they go outside the four corners of the law and it seeks to damage someone’s reputation, that is different,” he said.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb