31/3/22: Sun publisher News Group Newspapers has paid a “very substantial” five-figure sum to solicitor Uma Rajasundram, whose firm was falsely accused of “shamelessly touting a price list to help migrants stay in the UK”. The newspaper later admitted the article “confused” two types of fees.
The newspaper agreed to remove hundreds of “racist and threatening” reader comments from two articles on its website and then also took down the main article in question, according to Doughty Street Chambers.
The Sun then published a statement in print and online which clarified the fees “are for private clients only, not for legal aid”, adding: “We did not and do not suggest that Ms Rajasundram and colleagues act in any way outside the law or professional conduct and we are happy again to make this clear to readers.”
Rajasundram said: “What The Sun falsely claimed about my firm and I would have involved a serious breach of our professional ethics. Instead, this was unprofessional reporting. The gratuitous way that it chose to illustrate the article with a photo of me in a sari made the threatening and racist comments that it published underneath the article only too predictable, and left my team fearing for their safety.”
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