Court grants injunction against publication; is it too late?

There are several sidebars to this story, both concerning the official status of the report. We are reliably informed that this afternoon former D.F.C. Chairman Glenn Godfrey sought an interim injunction to prevent the Lord report from being made public and, because it was issued by Lord alone, to have it declared not to be an official report of the Commission of Inquiry. We are told that Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh granted the temporary injunction but since the report was already posted this morning on the government website, the ruling was meaningless. It is not clear how important the report’s official status is, but in any case the way now seems clear for Commission co-chair Merlene Bailey-Martinez to issue her own report. At that time we will see how her conclusion and recommendations compare with Justice Lord’s. It should be noted that just prior to news time Godfrey himself called News Five to inform us that since the Chief Justice has declared the report to be unofficial, those who publish it will not enjoy the same level of protection from any potential libel action by Godfrey and others. Godfrey has a pending action against News Five stemming from an interview given by Prime Minister Said Musa in Independence Village in 2005.