Arthur Kent files libel action against Canwest in New York State Supreme Court

Arthur Kent files libel action against Canwest in New York State Supreme Court

NEW YORK, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Journalist Arthur Kent, who was a candidate earlier this year in the provincial election in Alberta, Canada, has filed a libel lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court against Canadian media conglomerate Canwest Global, its National Post Company and related firms. (Full details online at www.arthurkent.ca)

The action, # 150198/2008, comes nine months after the worldwide publication on Canwest websites, and in several of the company's newspapers across Canada, of an article written by one of its employees, Don Martin. Canwest's newspapers refused to publish a rebuttal submitted by Kent, who later filed a defamation action against Canwest in Calgary, Canada.

Arthur Kent says: "Canwest launched a grossly inaccurate and biased attack on my character and reputation. The article misrepresents both our team's election campaign and my career in journalism, particularly my work for the New York-based broadcast news industry."

The article at issue was first published in the online edition of Canwest's The National Post, which continues to distribute the article in the U.S. and abroad via the internet.

Kent says: "A legitimate electoral contest in a suburb of the Canadian west was subjected to an act of political vandalism, and on a global scale."

"Especially in a jurisdiction like Alberta, where one political party has dominated for 40 years, new candidates must be able to challenge patronage and the government's failure to achieve genuine change, without fear of this kind of malicious smear."

A two-time Emmy Award winner, Arthur Kent is best known for his coverage of the 1991 Gulf War and his reports from Afghanistan dating to 1980. His documentary Captives of the Warlords was broadcast by PBS three months prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Between 1998 and 2003, he hosted two of The History Channel's top-rated series.

Today, Kent's skyreporter.com tracks events in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, he was noted as a Domain and Subject Matter Expert for the Government of Canada's independent review of Canada's Afghan mission.

Full details are available online at www.arthurkent.ca

Source: Arthur Kent

CONTACT: skyreporter@skyreporter.com

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