United Kingdom: CFWIJ Concerned About The Weaponization Of Libel Laws Against Carole Cadwalladr
Location: United Kingdom, London
Date: January 10, 2022
Journalist Carole Cadwalladr, associated with The Observer and The Guardian, will appear in court on Friday to defend herself against libel charges filed by multimillionaire Arron Banks. The charges are based on a comment Carole made during a TED talk regarding Arron's association with Nigel Farage and his Brexit campaign, as well as a subsequent tweet. Carole maintains that the statement was made in public interest.
In a 15 minute video which is still available on the TED platforms, Carole Cadwalladr made a passing remark regarding the Arron Banks donation to the Brexit campaign during her lecture in 2019. While speaking about the effects of Facebook (now Meta) on the electoral process Carole claimed that the £8 million donation made by Banks to Farage's Brexit campaign in 2016 breached electoral and data laws. She also asserted that Banks has not been entirely truthful about his relationship with the Russian government in the past.
Banks, who has persistently denied any association with the Russian government, was released of charges of illegality regarding his donations soon after the publication of the video. He then went on to sue Carole, claiming her remarks were defamatory. The case has been ongoing for two years and if found in breach of libel laws, Carole is looking at potentially being made to pay £750,000 to £1m as damages to Banks. Carole claims that she has always made it clear that the ties between Banks and Russia were never legally proven and her statement were made in public interest.
Banks's decision to sue a freelance journalist instead of the TED platforms where the Carole lecture remains published is not lost on the larger public. This move, thus, feels like a multimillionaire's attempt to financially cripple a journalist in order from discouraging the press to speaking about him. This will not be the first time libel laws have been weaponized against journalists to intimidate them into silence.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is extremely concerned about the ongoing case against Carole Cadwalladr and demands that it be immediately quashed. This is an instance where the legal system is being misused to legally harass and silence a journalist and the repercussions of a judgement in Banks's favour and the precedent it will set can have extremely damaging effects on press freedom in the United Kingdom going forward.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
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