Paper again decides not to defend its claims in court
For the second time this year, the Jewish Chronicle, its editor and one of its writers have apologised and paid ‘substantial’ damages for publishing histrionic fake news across a series of articles about a left Labour activist, as a letter published this week by the libelled woman’s lawyers confirms:
The Chronicle, which also paid Ms Al-Sanjari’s legal costs, accepted that all its accusations were ‘completely unfounded’ and has published the apology on its website, but did not publish the name of the apology’s author.
The paper and its hacks are repeat offenders. Earlier this year, the rag apologised and paid out a hefty sum to Liverpool pensioner and Labour activist Audrey White for a ‘litany of lies’ – also penned by Harpin – and was hammered by its own regulator IPSO for its failure to check the accuracy of its claims, to withdraw its lies even when challenged, or even to cooperate with IPSO’s investigation.
IPSO, run by the press it’s supposed to regulate and hardly known for harsh judgments against them, said of in its findings:
The publication had published a claim the accuracy of which it could not defend; the result was a breach of Clause 1 (i). The articles’ claim that the complainant had made “false” allegations concerning the actions of the police, was significant given its seriousness, and furthered the misleading impression of the complainant’s conduct towards Labour politicians. Upon receipt of the correspondence provided by the complainant, the newspaper had not offered to correct this significantly inaccurate claim, in breach of Clause 1 (ii)…
The Committee expressed significant concerns about the newspaper’s handling of this complaint. The newspaper had failed, on a number of occasions, to answer questions put to it by IPSO and it was regrettable the newspaper’s responses had been delayed. The Committee considered that the publication’s conduct during IPSO’s investigation was unacceptable. The Committee’s concerns have been drawn to the attention of IPSO’s Standards department.
As in the Al-Sanjari case, the Chronicle did even try to defend its claims or conduct in court.
Last year, the paper also paid £50,000 plus legal costs to UK Palestinian aid charity Interpal after libellously claiming it was associated with terrorism.
The Jewish Chronicle was bailed out from its financial woes earlier this year by a consortium including John Ware, who made last year’s Panorama programme alleging antisemitism in the Labour Party, former MP John Woodcock – who left Labour before the party’s investigation into ‘sex pest’ allegations was completed and now works for the Tory government – former BBC executive and Tory spin doctor Robbie Gibb and others.
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What a pity Sqwarkbox didn’t do much sqwarking about the Wavertree Four as the new rt wing, including many Momentum members, have continued the attacks using anti semitism as an excuse.
Apparently writing a polite letter to the new MP in an internal communication was enough to set the haters of democracy into a frenzy. ‘Racial abuse’ is the charge.
Then, the un-elected secretary of Wavertree CLP decided to be ‘Lord High Everything’. This including over-riding the chairperson (his partner) chairing the zoom meeting, to remove someone from the meeting because the person had an ‘offensive’ fridge. Most of the labour movement know about this, but they didn’t read it on SB. Why is this Ste?
potatoclock, please tell us why the fridge was deemed to be offensive?
AS the wicked Scam used in history to hand the Government to the Conservative and unionist party.And the New Labour project carried on by the knight hands over the loot from the membership that voted for him to the scammers in Compensation.for lies that destroyed the Labour party.And the clowns still defend him.Watching Starmer strip the Labour party is worse than listening to the antics on and off the field of Bolton wanderers.The Labour party may go the same way as my home town football club who suffered under corrupt and dodgy leadership.of a Tory Supporting Chairman.,down the toilet..!
Wonder if the Guardian will be reporting this, perhaps Jonathan Freedland?
This has really incensed me, not least because it will not reach the ears of those not from the left. In the case of the wonderful Audrey White, the fault lay not with the Jewish Chronicle in but with the Labour party, Ellman and her supporters who fed them the lies. In fact Ellman is still spouting lies on twitter.
Unfortunately mud sticks and many people who read the lies about these people will never know about the retractions apologies and compensation made by the Jewish Chronicle. Their names were dragged through the mud viciously and maliciously and no financial penalty imposed on the paper is sufficient punishment for the harm done to these complainants. I think it would have been more of a deterrent to others if the individuals who libelled and maligned these innocent people had been found personally liable and had to fork out the costs and compensation themselves – as it is they are not out a penny which is unjust and disgusting though I understand the law in this regard.
As well as the damage done to the reputations of these good people the Jewish Chronical, by lying about antisemitism has undermined genuine antisemitism complaints. This is completely unforgiveable. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Do they think that they believe that they could control the beast that these actions unleash. They can’t. It’s unforgiveable.
If the Labour Party had had bought legal suits against a whole slew of news outlets, the BBC, MPs including, up to and including some of their own MPs, way back in the early days at the start of the ‘fantisemitism’ smear campaign it would have screeched to a juddering halt due to the financial cost and loss of credibility. Instead they tried to acknowledge and appease the liars and the destructive right wing of the party in deference to Israeli Lobby groups and the BOD. This tactic actually made Jewish people in this country more of a target by actively ramping up genuine bigotry, encouraging an increase in online hate speech from the far right which was ignored while trying to destroy the progressive left!
John Ware made legal threats against Corbyn for defending his opinion of the Panorama hack job; he hastily backed off when Jeremy started gathering the financial support to take on the challenge in Court. Now is the time for Corbyn to stop turning the other cheek; he must fight back by bringing a countersuit where John Ware will have to defend the bogus material they presented on Panorama. This would accomplish several objectives, not just exposing the truth and eradicating the entire premise of the toxic smear campaign, but also proving that the so called Whistleblowers perjured themselves in written statements to deliberately defraud the Labour Party into paying them compensation.
I am not a Lawyer, but I believe that a written statement submitted to the Court that is a complete fabrication should constitute an act of perjury, fraud or both and I think both carry the potential for a custodial sentence. It would then be possible for the Labour Party to recover the money squandered by the ‘Captain of Capitulation’ Keir Starmer in the fraudulently secured out of Court settlement, based on the fact that it relied on perjured testimony. Corbyn could recover damages on behalf of the Labour Party, Trojan horse Starmer would be forced to resign and Corbyn would return to his rightful position as Labour Party Leader.
If Ware was dragged into Court to defend his Panorama hack job the BBC would also face huge criticism for the part they played in the deception. It would also be possible to expose the role of the Integrity Initiative (II) in pumping out toxic anti-Corby anti-Labour propaganda paid for by the Tory Government using public funding to support the corrupt and illegal work of this registered Charity. In any normal well functioning democracy such an appallingly blatant corruption scandal, the veracity of which has already been fully exposed, would be enough to have Tory Government officials arrested and jailed. In the UK we have yet to even managed to get the PM and his dangerous cabal removed from office! But just look at the price we are paying now with the Covid death toll.
Even if you do not believe as I do that the Covert 2019 Rigged Election was a stolen vote rather than a Tory ‘landslide victory;’ due to the above corruption the Tories have no legitimate right to govern. This corruption justifies a full Investigation into the result as we know that according to a well respected Judge, “the UK electoral system is wide open to industrial scale fraud.” We cannot trust the party that used our public money to fund a smear campaign, not to have taken full advantage of that weakness. So, we must Investigate and strengthen our Electoral Commission because “A Watchdog that cannot watch is just a dog!” Please sign the Petition to “Rescue our Watchdog, as all Votes must Count” you can find this Petition online.
Or… You could just continue feeling sorry for the fake loss of dignity and hope, due to the lies of fantisemitism and fraud. Are you still being conned into believing that the wealthy Tory elite, of the most corrupt political leadership in UK history, isn’t really using its ill gotten power to keep exploiting the working poor with their agenda of “Decimating Down!” Stop drinking the Kool-Aid and snap out of this dangerous Tory propaganda fantasy, look at the evidence of Covid targeting and end the cruel ‘Slaughter of the Sheeple’ cull now with your loud and persistent protest or in a few months this Tory Government will have solidified a Dictatorship that will endure for decades!
It’s not just Corbyn Ware was/is threatening to sue. He’s also suing a few members of Jewish Voice for Labour and Paddy French from the Pressgang website.
Has the investigation about Woodcock ended? This could be the start of still. I know your leadership woul be anti but something greatly must be done. The Aedeanstables are overflowing. ☮️
Kim Sanders-Fisher, one little thing…
Where is this “normal well functioning democracy” please, and does it accept refugees from the UK?
David McNiven – A very good question for which sadly, I have no reliable answer… I certainly hope that a few countries might accept our refugees if the situation escalates to a point where targeted individuals are being persecuted by the authoritarian state. Think they will not do that? We are all far too trusting… It takes ruthless tactics of repression to remain in power against the will of the people.
I did a recent analysis of the trajectory of this Tory Government and the potential impediments in the way of them seizing absolute control. In comparison to the rise of the Nazis in 1933, Hitler faced far greater challenges that could have preventing his seizing power as a Dictator! This should shock and terrify us all, but people in the UK are far too trusting to contemplate the horrific truth of what might lie ahead. Every time we trust that Johnson /Cummings will not dare to cross a particular line, violate a rule or perpetrate an injustice we are proved wrong.
Yes the EU is a flawed model, and many democracies within it do not support the full equality and freedom of their citizens, but their populations do have an opportunity to elect a more progressive Government; we are about to lose that option; with his fake majority Johnson will eliminate the fixed term parliament act and any future vote will be well and truly rigged. There are a growing number of rogue states where their citizens are now helpless to eject an authoritarian tyrant who has taken control in a ‘populist’ election; the UK will soon be joining their number with no more free and fair elections, they are warped enough as it is.
We still have a chance to derail this project before it is solidly established after we crash-out of the EU. It is important for people on both sides of the debate to understand that the Tories are planning for a damaging crash-out Brexit to compound the deprivation of Covid, because in the chaos that will ensue they can enforce more emergency powers to solidify their power grab. While we are still in the transition phase there is a chance that we can appeal to the EU Court to help us correct the injustice; beyond that point no workers right, no human rights, no free speech an protesters will be jailed.
If the illegal use of public funds to pay a so called ‘Charity’ to generate propaganda targeting the opposition was taken as seriously as it should have been after it was uncovered plus the true injustice of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election was fully exposed would other countries still recognize Johnson’s right to remain in power? If the British people then started protesting like Belarus do you really think that the EU would totally ignore our plight? They have their citizens living here too. This will not happen until the British people wake up to the reality of what lies ahead and start challenging the Tory propaganda.
This is the first time and place I am speaking about this. I can think of few other places more appropriate.
I have had a similar experience and will set up a fundraiser to launch legal action against those in the Labour Party responsible.
This type of lawsuit is called a SLAPP suit; it is never meant to come to Court and in most cases it is ill prepared to endure the rigors of the legal process. The sole objective is to publically discredit and defame, hamper protest operations and absorb the productive time of journalists with defensive rebuttals to sabotage valid investigations. SLAPPS function as a process of serious intimidation, gagging progressive policy advocates and professional investigative Journalists, through a process if unrelenting harassment and intimidating people into silent acceptance of corruption and wrongdoing. At the time of her murder the Maltese investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was battling over 40 SLAPP suits targeted at forcibly silencing her. This fact alone should drive anti-SLAPP legislation…
A SLAPP suit is a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” it violates the best interests of the people and must be robustly contested in Court. The only thing that derails this agenda is funding as SLAPP Lawsuits target those least able to fund a defence. The key lies in taking an offensive strategy. We can help fight this injustice by contributing to appeals for funding to assist those facing legal action because the one thing SLAPPs seek to avoid is exposure in Court. It is vitally important that those who are targeted continue their efforts to expose the truth and robustly countersue if at all possible. In the fight against corruption the truth is the best ‘disinfectant!’ I applaud your efforts.
‘Tings can only get better (bitter)’ should have been replaced by ‘Get Up, Stand Up!’ Tired of living on my knees…….tell Starmer to ‘Gimmie some Truth’.
Kim, I’ve only just seen this story (so a bit late in responding), but given what you said about how: ‘If the Labour Party had bought legal suits against a whole slew of news outlets, the BBC, MPs including, up to and including some of their own MPs, way back in the early days….’ etc, can you point to specific episodes/examples in which the LP could have taken legal action in your view.
All I will say for now is that I can only assume that in the two cases where the JC has ended up paying damages, that none of the MSM went along with the falsehoods, and the reason they didn’t is because they knew they were falsehoods, falsehoods that their legal advisers told them would be libellous. And my point is of course that on the one hand these newspapers, so-called, and other MSM news organisations and the MPs and groups that they so often quote, must obviously get advised by their legal teams as to what they can get away with, and on the other hand I would imagine that the LPs legal advisers advise them likewise as to whether or not it’s likely to be successful in one instance or another were it to sue.
I forgot to say that I agree that they should have sued John Ware and the other producers and the BBC for the totally corrupt Panorama program, which Joseph Goebbels himself would have greatly admired.
Allan, I suspect Goebbels might have rejected it as “Too obvious and too badly acted – and I recognise those actors from that other series – we’d never get away with it.”
As I’ve said before David – and for sure as Goebbels and Hitler and the other Nazi psychopathic elite all knew – that it’s all down to conceivability/inconceivability, and for the majority of ordinary people who watched the program – as opposed to those on the left and those on the fascist right – it would have been inconceivable to them that all these people – and especially the ten ‘ordinary Jewish LP members’ – were lying through their teeth. And the other key aspect to it is ’emotionalising’ your audience at the outset, which is precisely what they did with Ella Rose and having her looking all perturbed at the memory of it as she spun her Big Lie about someone comingup to her at a LP conference and screaming abuse in her face. And once people are ’emotionalised’, their critical thinking flies out the window!
Seen this on Zelo Street t’other day. Must say, I’m almost surprised stammer hadn’t offered himself pro-bono or to pay the damages. Poor form, from your unworthiness.
Mind you, look at what happened the last time a ‘JC’ needed stammer’s assistance and compliance…
Answer to Jack T..
Zoom meetings, for obvious reasons, are conducted so members can participate from their own homes.
The ‘Fridge Too Far’ as described by that wonderful ex miner, friend and cmd, John Dunn, was deemed to be offensive because it was adorned with a poster supporting the ‘Wavertree Four’, suspended on ridiculous charges . The Bame officer accused of racial bullying, Hazuan, is Malaysian and one of the best people a person could ever meet.
Wavertree CLP, lets not forget, was wrongly accused of anti-antisemitism by people who have no politics other than Tory ideology. They can’t abide democracy if they’;re in the minority. I know what I call people who don’t believe in democracy. I’ve put a few of em down when they attempt to march in Liverpool (got a few scars too) though they usually wear swastika’s. This current crew (rt wing) in the LP are hiding their true colours.
The new Rt wing obviously make up the rules as they go along, decided to, in a move that smacks of G. Orwells 1984, to remove the cmd in question from the meeting because he wouldn’t remove the poster from his own fridge, in his own kitchen!!!! I know. It’s so ridiculous it’s funny, and shows the gobshites up for what they are. Talk about the ‘telescreen’ described in 1984; this is real.
Now, being a stickler for rules, I think I’m safe in saying that the new regime is so up it’s own arse, that they interpret the rules ‘in their own image’, a bit like religious zealots.
Amazing isn’t it. The Tories and the capitalist class running riot, destruction of lives secondary to their wealth transfusion from poor to rich, and the toadies who have seized control (un-elected) and supported by the NW LP, have fuck all better to do than ensure that the road is cleared of opposition via the LP.
They’ll usher in the NF if we’re not careful as these disgusting creatures are derided and scorned by ordinary working people; we can right through them. The LP isn’t the only avenue to oppose the Tories cmds. Start organising, because they never will..
Thanks potatoclock. My constituency is not too far from Wavertree and I know some of the members there. They are most definitely not the right wingers you describe, who I’m guessing they are a legacy of Wavertree’s last two MP’s.
It’s not the ones with the swastika badges we should be afraid of.
The damage has been done. Corbyn is out, the paper rescued – what do they care? Worth every penny to nobble our election.
It’s not just the Chronicle making ridiculous accusations, but the toadies who know they’ll never win in a fair open debate. They remove opposition with bureaucratic manoeuvre’s.
Apparently having an offensive fridge.is the latest insertion into the rule book 🙂 Our new MP has now been accused of ’embracing nationalism’ on Twitter after her cheering on of Sir Stormer.
Funny how she was a Corbyn supporting socialist in the election to get her in as MP. Hazuan, a film maker, now suspended for racial bullying, actually made a film for her to help get her elected.
All forgotten now it seems. It was her comments on the L. Berger saga that led to four exec members politely expressing disappointment that her words would be used to further attack Wavertree CLP.
It’d be nice to see the story covered on this site. Disappointing that it hasn’t already been reported here in a full article. Mbe Sqwarky is afraid of the Thought Police? 🙂 Only kiddin’ Ste, but you should run an article, especially as it’s on your own doorstep.