The defence fund set up to support cycling journalist Paul Kimmage in his defamation defence against the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has reached more than $58,000 in just over weeks.
The ex-Sunday Times reporter was served with a subpoena last month summoning him to a court in the Swiss town of Vevey, near Geneva, on 12 December.
The articles the UCI claims are defamatory were published in The Sunday Times and L’Equipe, but the body is targeting Kimmage personally and is not pursuing any action against the publishers.
Kimmage is being sued by the UCI, its president Pat McQuaid and its honorary president Hein Verbruggen.
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If successful he could be forced to take out full-page advertisements in L’Equipe, The Sunday Times and the Swiss paper Le Matin to apologise.
In response to the action, the US site nyvelocity.com helped set up the ‘Paul Kimmage Defense Fund’ to aid his legal battle against the UCI.
As of this morning $56,449 had been raised by Kimmage’s supporters.
Last month Kimmage told Press Gazette that he fears the defamation action is an attempt to silence his 22-year crusade to expose doping.
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