The New European says it plans to sue Michelle Mone to recover legal fees spent by the publisher responding to her ‘deceitful’ threats against them over their reporting of the PPE Medpro scandal.
Working with Good Law Project, the governance watchdog, the newspaper says it has instructed solicitors and Counsel and expects to begin the case against Mone early in the New Year.
An action of this sort is highly unusual but The New European and Good Law Project believe it is necessary to put those making baseless defamation claims at risk. High net worth individuals cannot be given a free hit against media organisations or campaigners to silence their reporting.
The New European says Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman have both admitted lying to a number of publishers and threatening them with defamation suits for publishing factual stories.
The New European and Good Law Project believe The Guardian, The Mirror, Byline Times, The National, Tortoise – and a number of freelance reporters – have also spent time, money or both dealing with defamation threats connected to their reporting of PPE Medpro.
The case will seek to establish whether there is a legal mechanism to recover those costs where deceit is proven.
Matt Kelly, editor-in-chief of The New European, said: “Mone sought to pretend that the Lady M yacht had nothing to do with her. That is a nonsense. We were forced to spend several thousand pounds of costs in legal fees responding to her mendacious threats. We want our money back. More than that, we want to establish a future deterrent against wealthy individuals willing to lie to stymie honest reporting. We look forward to seeing Mone in court in the new year.”
Jolyon Maugham KC, founder and director of Good Law Project, said: “The law must not allow itself to become a tool whereby those with money can bully and silence those with none. We aim to create further jeopardy for those who engage in these kinds of egregious breaches.”
The action against Mone is being conducted by Lochlinn Parker, managing director of Good Law Practice and Caroline Addy from Doughty Street Chambers, added the publisher.
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