Political blog Guido Fawkes has launched a fundraising bid to help defend a libel claim brought by Ecotricity founder Dale Vince.
Guido’s editor and owner Paul Staines is aiming to raise £100,000, saying legal costs are already approaching £50,000 before the case has even got to court. The first hearing is due next week.
It is the first time the site has launched a crowdfunding campaign in its 20 years of publication.
Staines says Guido only reported “the actual words” that green energy industrialist Vince said about Hamas during an appearance on Times Radio in March.
Guido generally ignores British court orders and escapes the legal perils faced by most UK publishers given that he and his site’s servers are based outside the country.
But Ireland-based Staines has decided not to use his usual “safe haven protection”.
“We’re going to make a stand and defend free speech and the reporting of the actual words he said,” Staines said on the fundraising page, referring to Conservative peer Shaun Bailey and Reform MP Richard Tice who are also being sued by Vince.
The Go Fund Me page, first publicised by Guido on Thursday afternoon, had raised £12,000 by 5pm from more than 330 people. Update: As of Friday morning, 1,700 people had donated more than £57,000.
Vince said in an X post to Guido last month that he is “not using GDPR or anything else to suppress free speech or reporting – I’m not trying to stop you talking about me (knock yourself out).
“I’m simply standing up for the truth and against your style of trash journalism – where facts don’t get in the way of your story.”
Extracts of legal letters published by Guido indicate the legal action contains claims of libel, malicious falsehood and breach of the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.
The Daily Mail has already apologised and agreed substantial libel damages over similar reporting that Vince said Hamas “should be free to defend itself”.
The Mail said: “We now accept that this quote is inaccurate and wish to make clear that Mr Vince does not support Hamas in any way. We apologise to Mr Vince for any damage and distress caused by the error.”
GB News also apologised to Vince, saying in a statement: “On 14 March 2024, we published a post on X in which we stated that Dale Vince “said in a radio interview … that Hamas are ‘freedom fighters’”. We now accept that this was not an accurate reflection of Mr Vince’s comments. We apologise to Mr Vince for any distress caused by our publication.”
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