The International Press Institute (IPI) today expressed shock at the UK Court of Appeal ruling ordering investigative journalist, Carole Cadwalladr, to pay 60% of the legal costs of Arron Banks, the UK businessman who accused her of defamation. The estimated sum exceeds one million GBP, according to Banks.

In February 2023, Cadwalladr had been cleared of defamation by the Appeal Court, which acknowledged that her comments questioning Banks’ relations with the Russian government and the Brexit campaign was lawful and in the public interest at the time of publication in 2019. 

However, Banks argued that after the Electoral Commission issued its report on 29 April 2020 that there was no evidence he had committed a crime with respect to the Brexit referendum, Cadwalladr’s original 2019 comments were defamatory. 

The Appeal Court has now ruled that Cadwalladr must pay 60% of Banks’ legal costs and 30% of his appeal costs for damages incurred since May 2020. This ruling is made despite acknowledging that Cadwalladr had no control over the continued accessibility of her TED talk after April 2020.

In June 2022 the High Court ruled that Cadwalladr’s comments regarding Banks and the Russian government were “political expression of the highest importance and of great public interest.”

Frane Maroevic, IPI Executive Director, echoed Cadwalladr in describing the verdict as “a dark day for press freedom”.

“The court confirmed that the statement was legal and in the public interest when it was made. The court then made the journalist pay £1M legal costs because apparently the internet doesn’t forget. It is also very indicative that the whole time it was the individual journalist who was targeted, and forced to raise huge amounts to defend her public interest reporting”, he said.