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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