Carole Cadwalladr’s High Court victory against Brexit donor Arron Banks shows more must be done to protect journalists from “expensive and onerous legal battles”, press freedom campaigners say.
Businessman Banks had sued investigative journalist Cadwalladr over comments she made during a TED talk in April 2019.
In a decision handed down on Monday, Mrs Justice Steyn found Banks was correct that the TED talk had caused ‘serious harm’ to his reputation, but said Cadwalladr’s claims were made in the public interest, which is a legal defence against defamation proceedings. Banks tweeted on Monday that he would “likely appeal” the decision.
