Patrick Muirhead wins case against PSAB, SBC |11 August 2025
Patrick Muirhead wins case against PSAB, SBC
Sacked TV journalist Patrick Muirhead was rejoicing last week after the Supreme Court ruled that his dismissal from the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation more than three and a half years ago was illegal.
A judicial review overturned a decision by the Public Service Appeal Board (PSAB) to which the British newsman had appealed unsuccessfully to win back his on-screen reporting and teaching role. In his judgment on August 1, Judge Gustave Dodin called the PSAB’s ruling “blatantly wrong”, saying its panel had “ignored the law”.
Mr Muirhead was fired in December 2021 following a dispute with SBC’s chief executive, Bérard Duprès, over the naming of suspects arrested in the notorious $50 million corruption and weapons cases centred on Mukesh Valabhji.
“This ruling reverses a howling injustice,” said Mr Muirhead, 57, at his home in Anse à la Mouche.
“Frankly, it’s been the most horrendous experience – like a never-ending nightmare. But I’m immensely grateful to the court and to my lawyer, Bernard Georges, for a favourable and just outcome,” said Mr Muirhead.
“Journalists have one job: to report the news accurately, fairly, fully and without favour. That’s all I ever wanted to do, and teach, for the good of SBC’s viewers and listeners. The $50m case was a huge story and people deserved to know the names of the big hitters in handcuffs,” he added.
Muirhead, a principal editor, was engaged by SBC in 2017 to help improve journalism standards. He had pleaded in vain with Mr Duprès not to censor his news reports, concealing the suspects’ identities that were already in the public domain. He took a day’s unapproved absence in protest.
The Englishman was summarily fired without notice for gross misconduct the following week, accused of insubordination, attempting to undermine SBC’s undertaking and taking leave without permission.
In his Supreme Court judgment, Judge Dodin ruled that both CEO Duprès and SBC’s chairman Gérard Lafortune had failed to comply with the Employment Act by denying Muirhead due process in failing to investigate the matter formally and to meet with him to discuss it.
PSAB’s chairman, Bryan Julie, had recused himself from a subsequent external unfair dismissal appeal on the grounds of his personal links to SBC. Nonetheless, Judge Dodin said, it was clear that the PSAB “chose to ignore the fact[s] and go off on a tangent of its own”.
The PSAB offered no contest in the judicial review, nor even attended court.
The journalist’s sacking prompted widespread condemnation at the time, with hundreds of online comments from SBC’s outraged viewers and listeners and even concerned remarks about the affair made by President Wavel Ramkalawan during a live televised press conference.
“Lessons must be learned and consequences faced,” Mr Muirhead said.
SBC has not yet commented publicly.
Contributed