Nalini wants $.3M for Amplia “leak”

THE woman featured last month in a racist rant over People’s National Movement advertisements infiltrating her Zee TV Indian cable channel has sued Amplia Communications for breach of confidentiality.

Lawyers for Nalini Ramai sent a pre-action protocol letter on Friday to Amplia Communications, acknowledging her racist remarks, but contends it was a private and confidential telephone conversation which should not have been revealed to the public.

Amplia Communications (formerly Massy Communications) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TSTT.

On April 12, Ramai spoke to a customer service representative (CSR) expressing dissatisfaction over interruption of Zee TV programmes, which was part of her cable package. The program which airs East Indian soap operas, singing and dancing among other similar type shows from Bollywood, was frequently interrupted by PNM broadcasts, Ramai said in the letter. During the conversation with the CSR, she made derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Dr Rowley, adding that she happened to switch to the Zee TV channel, only to be greeted by a national address by him.

Ramai is admitting she used graphic racial slurs, but her attorney Jeevan Andrew Rampersad said that on the next day, his client called the Office of the Prime Minister and apologised.

By that time, the letter said, the audio clip of the conversation had already made the rounds on Facebook which evoked a barrage of criticisms against Ramai.

Amplia launched an investigation into how the voice recording was leaked. Last week Monday, it was reported that an Amplia supervisor resigned.

Rampersad called on Amplia to pay Ramai $300,000 in damages for breach of confidentiality, saying it was only the company that had possession of the recording. He said to disclose the audio clip was a breach of contract between the caller and the company.