Namibian Church Sues Government Paper For Defamation

In Namibia, the fast-growing Universal Church of the Kingdom of God filed a defamation suit seeking damages from the government-owned newspaper that ran an article characterizing the church as a "Satanic sect". Today's Namibian reports that the High Court suit against the Southern Times (jointly owned by the Namibian and Zimbabwean governments) focuses on a December 2005 headline that read "State bans 'Satanic' sect' " and which was published above a photograph showing the church's building in Windhoek. In fact the ban was in Zambia, and came after a riot stemming from rumors about the church.