John Ware wins £90,000 in libel case against Press Gang’s Paddy French
John Ware, the maker of the BBC Panorama documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic”, has won a total of £90,000 in his libel lawsuit against the Editor of the Press Gang blog.
The lawsuit against Paddy French centred on claims made by Mr French that the Panorama documentary “bent the truth to breaking point” and was a “rogue piece of journalism”. Mr French reportedly disseminated the comment to over 100 senior figures at the BBC, Channel 4 News, Sky News, LBC, The Guardian, The Times and other newspapers.
Mr Ware had originally sued Mr French for £50,000, but received more following Mr French’s decision not to appear in court.
Mr Ware commented: “I wanted my day in court…But not just this unsatisfactory one-sided affair…I wanted my day in court but Mr French has slithered away.”
The judge, Mr Justice Julian Knowles, decided to proceed with the one-hour hearing without Mr French present, noting that “he had no defence” and that his withdrawal of the truth defence had “seriously exacerbated the damage caused” to Mr Ware.
The court concluded that Mr French’s statements caused serious harm to Mr Ware’s reputation as a journalist and awarded him a total of £90,000 in damages. The judge also issued a permanent injunction stopping Mr French from repeating the allegations.
Mr Ware previously received an apology in open court from Jewish Voice for Labour’s Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi following libel claims brought against her.
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.