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JVL apologises to Panorama journalist John Ware for defaming him on radio and social media
The hard-left group now faces collapse over an estimated £200,000 damages and costs
October 6, 2022 10:10
The hard-left group now faces collapse over an estimated £200,000 damages and costs
October 6, 2022 10:10Jewish Voice for Labour has apologised “unreservedly” to journalist John Ware for defamatory statements about him on national radio and social media.
The hard-left pressure group’s co-founder, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, had accused former BBC Panorama broadcaster Mr Ware of being a right-wing Islamophobe.
The day after Panorama screened an investigation into antisemitism within Labour under former leader Jeremy Corbyn in July 2019, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi told the Jeremy Vine show’s 1.4 million listeners on BBC Radio 2 that Mr Ware had "a terrible record of Islamophobia, far-right politics, he’s been disciplined at… BBC has had to apologise.”
Ms Wimborne-Idrissi added on Facebook that Mr Ware was a journalist with a “record of right-wing, racist work”. That post was reproduced on JVL's website, run by the editor Richard Kuper.
Libel proceedings brought against Ms Wimborne-Idrissi, JVL and Mr Kuper were settled out of court last month.
The hard-left group now faces collapse over an estimated £200,000 damages and costs.
And this week, in a statement read out in the High Court in London on Tuesday (4 October), lawyers representing the three defendants said: “The parties have settled this claim and have agreed that the following statement from the first defendant, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi, should be read in open court: ‘I accept the court’s judgment that my comments about John Ware in a live radio programme on the Jeremy Vine show were defamatory.
“‘I should not have asserted that the BBC had taken action against Mr Ware in connection with allegations he has engaged in Islamophobia and extreme far-right and/or racist politics, nor that this was in any way reflected in his journalistic work.
“‘I accept these allegations are untrue. JVL and I have apologised unreservedly to Mr Ware and explained that I spoke in the way that I did because I was angry at the content of the ‘Is Labour antisemitic programme?’ programme for which Mr Ware was the reporter.’”
Lawyers for Mr Ware said that “on that basis” the journalist was “content to let the matter rest”.