Mohammed Sawalha wins libel case against Spectator & Mel P
Categories: Latest News
Thursday November 25 2010
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The Spectator and Melanie Phillips have been forced to issue an apology and pay “substantial damages” to Mohammad Sawalha, a British Palestinian, after an article by Mad Mel in 2008 falsely stated that Mr. Sawalha had referred to Jews in Britain as “evil/noxious.” |
The apology reads:
“On 2 July 2008 we published an article entitled ‘Just look what came crawling out’ which alleged that at a protest at the celebration in London of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, Mohammad Sawalha had referred to Jews in Britian (sic) as ‘evil/noxious’. We now accept that Mr Sawalha made no such anti-Semitic statement and that the article was based on a mistranslation elsewhere of an earlier report. We and Melanie Phillips apologise for the error.”
“In July 2008, Mad Mel lifted and embellished a mistake from the neocon website, Harry’s Place, regarding Mohammad Sawalha, a Palestinian-born British man whom Al Jazeera had mis-transcribed referring to ‘evil/ noxious’ Jews at a rally. In fact, as Arabic experts later confirmed to High Court superstar Tugendhat, he referred to the ‘Jewish lobby’. Al Jazeera corrected it instantly, and Harry’s Place later, yet MM magisterially ignored requests for a simple correction until a trial was imminent, when she caved. This unwonted arrogance has presented a six-figure bill for damages and costs to The Spectator, which at the time of writing continues to host her deliciously deranged blog.”
Perhaps next time Phillips could actually do her research properly and when mistakes are made, the Spectator could correct them instantly.
The Spectator was also forced to issue an apology in August to Islam Expo over an article they had published written by Jewish Chronicle editor, Stephen Pollard, in which he referred to Islam Expo as “a conference with a racist and genocidal programme.”
It seems The Spectator’s decision to host articles by extreme Zionists making false claims is proving very costly. Something for the Speccie to ponder over, perhaps?