Guardian News and Media has agreed to pay Spectator associate editor Douglas Murray “substantial” damages to settle a libel claim.
The claim related to an Observer column from August in which writer Kenan Malik claimed that, during an interview, Murray had spoken in favour of the UK’s far-right summer riots.
In fact, the interview to which Malik referred had occurred several months before the riots.
In the interview, carried out in late 2023 by former Australian deputy prime minister John Anderson, Murray had referred to pro-Palestine protestors at a Remembrance Sunday event by saying: “The British soul is awakening and stirring with rage at what these people are doing,” adding “I don’t want them here”.
According to a joint statement read out in court on Tuesday, an edited version of the interview was “for a short period” uploaded onto Anderson’s website and Youtube on 6 August 2024, “in the immediate aftermath of the riots”.
Murray’s counsel said in the joint statement this had given “the misleading impression that Mr Murray was encouraging the riots”.
Malik, a regular Observer contributor, wrote in his August article that Murray’s statement about “what these people are doing” had been made in connection with the riots, and that “these people” referred to immigrants. Murray has written repeatedly on his opposition to “mass immigration”.
The mistake was reportedly caught before being published online, but not in print, and The Observer ran a correction on 17 August. The article online now carries the caveat: “The comment might sound like a response to the recent riots, but was actually recorded last year (the edited clip of the old interview was uploaded on Anderson’s website last week, but has since been taken down).”
Murray’s counsel said the allegations “were wholly untrue” and their publication “has caused Mr Murray considerable distress”.
Guardian News and Media’s solicitor said the company “apologises unreservedly to Mr Murray and is pleased to set the record straight. It acknowledges that the allegations were false and has agreed to pay him substantial damages”.
The settlement comes as The Observer is set to change hands and come under the ownership of Tortoise Media this year.
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