Rachel Riley has been awarded £50,000 in damages after winning her libel case against a political blogger who accused her of "bullying" a 16-year-old girl.
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The 36-year-old presenter sued Michael Sivier over a 2019 article about a Twitter debate on antisemitism within Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. He claimed his article was in the public interest as he fought the libel proceedings in the High Court.
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The article discussed tweets as part of an online debate on antisemitism in the Labour Party, some of which were exchanged between by Rachel, 36, and a teenager called Rose, in December 2018 and January 2019.
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However, on Wednesday morning, Mrs Justice Steyn said that Mr Sivier's article "misrepresented the evidential picture," and that it was a "wholly unreasonable" belief which was not supported by the evidence.
"He had no reasonable grounds for making the factual allegations that he did, which misrepresented the evidential picture, and the article was wholly unbalanced," she said.
"The importance of giving Ms Riley an opportunity to comment prior to the publication of the article is particularly evident in light of the numerous matters on which Mr Sivier made assumptions."
Rachel has been awarded £50,000 in damages
She added: "Whether or not one agrees with the views Ms Riley articulated in her second thread to Rose, Ms Riley expressed herself in a polite and cordial way, providing information to a teenager who had sought to engage with her, and who had said this was a topic about which she was just learning.
"Ms Riley expressed the point that she found it hurtful to be accused of lying and encouraging a smear campaign in restrained and mild terms."
Mr Sivier claimed he had a "reasonable belief" it was in the public interest to publish the claims in the article. In January 2021, Mrs Justice Collins Rice struck out Mr Sivier's defences, stating they had "no prospect" of succeeding.
However, Mr Sivier won a challenge at the Court of Appeal a short while later, finding that his public interest defence should be assessed at a trial.
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