South Africa AIDS Activists Win Defamation Case

Today, the Cape High Court ordered German doctor Matthias Rath to stop publishing statements accusing the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) of being a front for AIDS drug makers. The court said Rath's charges exceeded the limits of free speech.

The Sapa news agency quoted Judge Siraj Desai as saying, "The limited restraint on free speech, resulting from the order I make, is not directed to stop the respondents [Rath] from participating in a debate of immense public importance. The restraint is directed at the manner in which the respondents have chosen to participate in the debate and the methods they chose to employ."

In newspaper ads and in leaflets distributed in impoverished townships, the Rath Foundation has accused the UN, World Health Organization, United States, and Britain of engaging in a conspiracy to promote expensive medicines on behalf of a drug cartel. Rath maintains that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) are toxic and says AIDS should be treated with the multi-vitamins he sells.

TAC, which spearheaded the movement to force South Africa's government to provide ARVs, denies ever receiving money from pharmaceutical companies. TAC says Rath's accusations hinder the fight against HIV, and in November, it sued the government for allowing Rath to work in South Africa. The government this week reported that about 100,000 HIV-positive South Africans are receiving publicly funded AIDS drugs.

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