A top media freedom lawyer said the UK press is facing “extreme legal hurdles”, pointing to reporting of allegations against Crispin Odey and Russell Brand.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in human rights, praised the “power of journalism here in the UK” seen in the past 12 to 18 months.
But she said this had not come easily. The Financial Times is now being sued for libel by former City banker Odey over the publication last year of allegations, alongside Tortoise, made by multiple women. The FT said it will “vigorously” defend its reporting.
Meanwhile last year The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches together published allegations brought against presenter and actor Brand (which he denies). Sunday Times media editor Rosamund Urwin had been investigating the allegations since 2019.
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Speaking at the launch of the 27th edition of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists in London on Tuesday, Gallagher pointed to the then-Attorney General’s warning to media over the Brand story in September “despite there being no imminent threat of contempt of court and no active proceedings”.
Gallagher said “these are attacks which the media face every day. And I also see repeatedly in my international work that when journalism is denigrated by Western governments and Western politicians it has an impact across the world.
“So when Donald Trump referred to journalists as enemies of the people, I cannot tell you how often that phrase was repeated back in cases which involved deaths of journalists and cases which involved jailing of journalists.
“Here in the UK, we need to be proud of a long history of supporting journalists and supporting journalism, not only in order to protect journalists and journalism here in the UK, but also to protect journalists and journalism across the world.”
Gallagher’s work in media has included leading the legal teams for the family of murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, for jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, and for 152 BBC Persian journalists persecuted by Iran.
She said she spends most of her time acting in international cases “involving journalists being jailed for treading on powerful toes, or journalists being killed for treading on powerful toes”.
But she added that people often have a “perception somehow that international work is quite removed from the day to day work here in the UK. And it’s simply wrong”.
She highlighted, for example, the fact lawsuits deemed as SLAPPs (strategic litigation against public participation) are issued to journalists abroad by law firms in the UK.
“Daphne Caruana Galizia… was facing 47 lawsuits, many of which were without any proper basis. And many of which were issued from law firms here in London,” she said.
Gallagher also praised the work by Evening Standard courts correspondent Tristan Kirk on the single justice procedure and “conveyor belt justice” which just won him the Paul Foot Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism.
She described it as “groundbreaking and one of those key pieces of work which could only have been done by someone who is a court reporter day in day out and put time and resource and doggedness into chasing this up. Spotting the fact that 36 identical sentences were passed on the same day by an SJP magistrate without any reflection of the nuances of the individual case.”
She added that the investigation discovered “deep, deep flaws in the system and it’s positive to see that during the election campaign, both Labour and the Conservatives said it needs reform.
“That’s the power of journalism and the power of ensuring that you tread on powerful toes and you dig in to dark places.”
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