Kinnock wins EUR 60,000 in libel battle with magazines

By Peter Chapman

Date: 22/01/04

NEIL Kinnock has won a settlement worth more than €60,000 in a libel claim against two satirical magazines which published defamatory articles about him.

London-based Private Eye and Brussels magazine The Sprout erroneously linked the European Commission vice-president with an alleged cover-up involving the possible misuse of EU funds at a London council during the late 1990s. But no wrongdoing was ever proven in the case, and Kinnock said allegations that he was in any way involved were totally unfounded.

In a statement to European Voice yesterday (21 January), the former UK Labour Party leader said: "Private Eye and The Sprout published allegations which were seriously defamatory and, consequently, I sued both publications seeking a public apology, damages and costs."

After legal representations, both publications printed apologies stating that they accepted unreservedly that there is, and was, no basis for their allegations against the Welsh commissioner.

This newspaper has seen copies of letters exchanged by the lawyers acting for Kinnock, TLT of Bristol, and for Private Eye, Davenport Lyons of London.

They show that the Commission's internal reform supremo agreed on a settlement worth £43,347.50 (62,888 euro). This figure includes legal costs for his solicitors.

As part of the out-of-court settlement, the Brussels-based owners of The Sprout, Martin Jay and Gawain Towler, were required to remove any reference to the allegations from their internet site.

Kinnock said he intends to give his share of the pay-out to charity, although he

prefers to keep the name of the recipients under wraps.

"It is my custom to use damages paid for defamation for payments to charities of my choice and, naturally, I will continue to do that in this case. It is not my custom to publicize the names of those charities although, sometimes, the charity payment has been publicized by others as in the recent instance of a £10,000 [14,500 euro] donation to the Burma Democracy campaign."

The Sprout published the defamatory article in question last September. An edited version then appeared in Private Eye, the UK equivalent of France's Canard Enchaîné.

The Eye, edited by Ian Hislop, a well-known figure in Britain and panellist on a BBC satirical television programme Have I Got News For You, paid the sum of damages asked for by Kinnock's lawyers in full.

Sprout co-editor Martin Jay said he and Hislop had a "gentleman's agreement" that the London-based Eye would help cover any libel claims resulting from its use of articles provided by his magazine.

However, Hislop has removed an internet link between the two publications - an issue raised by Kinnock's lawyers.

Jay said: "If it were not for Private Eye bailing us out, he [Kinnock] would have succeeded in closing down this small start-up company."

However Kinnock, who leaves the Commission later this year, rejected the notion that he wanted to ruin Jay's firm: "I sued two publications because I had been seriously libelled by both of them, not for any other reason.

"It is a well-known fact that, over the last 20 years, I have taken action against several publications which have published seriously defamatory material about me. I do not have a list. I do recall that I have never had occasion to sue Private Eye before," he added.

Hislop declined to comment.

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/ http://www.private-eye.co.uk/

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