To her fans, Cadwalladr is an icona brave, irreverent, truth-seeking missile, exposing a nexus of corruption that is subverting our body politic, not only the Woodward and Bernstein of Brexit, but also its Emmeline Pankhurst, tirelessly campaigning for what she sees as a just outcome. All rights reserved. And she has been good at it, radicalizing those who support Britains staying in the EU; she has been lauded in Parliament, and several prominent lawmakers have joined in her call. To make a lasting change, we carry out in-depth work with governments and institutions. Do you believe there can be no freedom of conscience without freedom of the press? But the baubles seemed hardly to have mattered. Do you want to help free and independent journalism, and those who embody it? Thanks to her inner-strength and the generosity of her social media followers, Cadwalladrdecided to fight. There is an issue about the extent to which she should seek to persuade it to edit the Ted Talk or cease publication of the talk in its current form. Cancel any time. Follow. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [22] The Electoral Commission ruled that Leave.EU, the campaign that Arron Banks founded and funded, broke UK electoral law. Only 1 a week after your trial. She also claims that Seumas Milne, consigliere to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has pro-Putin views. This, she tweeted, is influencing Labours ambivalent Brexit stance. A & B Animal Rescue of SW Arkansas (Ashdown, AR), Almost Home Dog Rescue of Ohio (Dublin, OH), American Humane (Washington, DC), Animal Humane New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM), ARK - Animal Rescue Konsortium (Crescent City, FL), Animal Rescue of the Rockies (Aurora, CO), Animal Rescue Rhode Island (Peace Dale, RI), APA Adoption Center (St. Louis, MO), Arizona Humane Society, Baldwin Humane Society . However, The Times did not know that Mr. Wylie had later secured an unidentified financial backer to cover his potential legal costs, the spokeswoman said. Feel free to CONTACT US if you have any questions. This story has been updated to reflect new information provided by a spokeswoman for The New York Times, and the results of a National Crime Agency investigation. For years, this award-winning journalist had been investigating the role of social media in our democracy and the role that Facebook in particular had played in the Brexit referendum. According to Cadwalladr, The New York Times and Britains Channel 4 News, which were partnering in the investigation, were informed of the arrangement, and Wylies lawyers did due diligence to make sure the backer wasnt a Russian oligarch or something and to avoid any other conflict of interests. (A Times spokesperson initially said that the paper was not aware of the financial-backer arrangement and that had Cadwalladr helped to arrange financial backing it would violate our journalism guidelines, which cover outside contributors. After the publication of this story the Times reviewed communications with Cadwalladr and found that, in late 2017, she had mentioned to the Times that another media outlet was considering an indemnity for Wylie. [11] It was one of the opening talks of TED's 2019 conference and Cadwalladr called out the 'Gods of Silicon Valley Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page & Jack Dorsey' by name. Though the newspapers lawyers advised her not to, in advance of her article being published, she shared some of her reporting with an official British investigation into Cambridge Analytica after authorities approached her, and she put former employees in contact with them. Last year, he lost a high court case brought personally against Cadwalladr in relation to two instances from 2019 one in a Ted Talk and the other in a tweet in which she said the businessman was lying about his relationship with the Russian state. She is even the thinly veiled inspiration for the journalistic hero in a recently released young-adult novel. She has responded, accusing Banks of harassment and an attempt to silence her by tying her up in complex court proceedings. The Family Tree was translated into several languages including Spanish, Italian, German, Czech, and Portuguese. These chilling realities, when combined with the complexity of defending a case under UK libel laws, explain why British journalists are reluctant to publish information about wealthy or powerful individuals. The fact Carole Cadwalladr could now have to pay damages for journalism the court acknowledges was in the public interest is deeply disappointing. Warby wrote: My conclusion that the trial judge erred in the ways I have identified is not enough in itself to justify the reversal of her decision Nonetheless, so far as the Ted Talk is concerned, I have concluded that the judges errors do fatally undermine her conclusion. The speech was applauded. Nevertheless, it is worth noting the toll such a case can take on an individual. [4] She was educated at Radyr Comprehensive School, Cardiff,[5] and Hertford College, Oxford.[6]. But Cadwalladr, I was happy to discover, lives in an elevated row house set in a charming brick . But to her opponents, she is something else: a hysterical middle-aged conspiracy theorist, someone who pushed her stories beyond what the facts supported and who was willing to legally threaten journalists she was working with to get her wayor, in the words of the BBC journalist Andrew Neil, a mad cat woman.. (In the end, the cases were settled or withdrawn.). There are many products to help prevent damaging scratching behavior. Most importantly, the landmark public interest ruling is intact. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reiterates its support for Cadwalladr, an RSF Press Freedom Prize laureate, and calls on the UK government to do more to protect journalists from lawsuits aimed at silencing public interest reporting. You will have all of the rights and responsibilities of being a parent, the same as you would have if the child were born to you. Sanni blew the whistle on the campaigns significant overspending, which the Electoral Commission later found to be illegal. But what has just happened is something that should cause a certain ripple of consequences. "If Arron Banks had won today that would have a very different impact on the UK's press freedom climate so we're very pleased that it's gone the way that it has," she told the BBC. Cadwalladr could not defend the judges interpretation ofwhat she had said and apologised to Banks for that reading of her remarks. In an April TED Talk, she accused Banks, of Leave.EU, of. Evidence has emerged across Europe of Russians seeking to influence right-wing politics, but in the United States and here, the picture remains less clear. The court acknowledged Cadwalladr could not control what the TED organisation does, but its conclusion that Banks may have been harmed by ongoing publication after 29 April 2020 exposes her to potential damages and further legal proceedings. Carole Cadwalladr outside the Royal Courts of Justice with her supporters in January 2022. Appreciation page for the top investigative journalist #CaroleCadwalladr (fan account ) Posts Tagged. I won the case. Her rise also reveals something about the state of British media, where social-media-powered campaigners can become megastars. The resolve displayed by Carole Cadwalladr in her successful defence against a libel action brought by Arron Banks calls to mind Hemingways definition of courage as grace under pressure. Carole Cadwalladr is an investigative journalist and features writer. Carole Jane Cadwalladr (/kdwldr/; born 1969) is a British author, investigative journalist and features writer. Hancock wanted to deploy new Covid variant and frighten the pants off everyone, Prince Harry and Gabor Mat are a match made in heaven, Is Putin winning? [18], Seven press freedom groups joined forces to express their alarm at the lawsuit, calling for it to be dropped and calling on the British government to defend public-interest journalism. Both the governing Conservatives and opposition Labour Party here in Britain, she says, have got reasons not to want to excavate problematic connections to Russia. Why? The judge's ruling, on everything else, holds., Banks has repeatedly denied the case is vexatious and tweeted, in reaction to the appeal verdict: Hopefully, some journalistic lessons will be learned from this episode.. Eventually, she was introduced to Christopher Wylie, the pink-haired former staffer who would, over time, become famous for blowing the whistle on its practices, saying he felt a huge amount of shame about the data he weaponized in 2016. 2023 BBC. Cadwalladrs reporting has put direct pressure on Cummingsin March, he was found in contempt of Parliament after refusing to appear before a committee investigating fake news, with an agenda largely set by Cadwalladrs revelations. With respect to the Ted Talk, the judge found that the public interest defence fell away after the Electoral Commission found no evidence of law-breaking by Banks with respect to donations. Carole Cadwalladr's High Court victory against Brexit donor Arron Banks shows more must be done to protect journalists from "expensive and onerous legal battles", press freedom campaigners say.. But by that time 29 April 2020 Steyn was not convinced that the continuing publication of the Ted Talk caused or was likely to cause serious harm to his reputation. To support her reporting and legal battle, she recently launched a new online fundraising drive, a GoFundMe, and at the time of this writing has raised nearly 300,000 (about $370,000). She is earnest where many are regarded as cynical. But no matter what she publishes, many people in the most powerful offices in London will be more than happy to do just that. Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist who exposed how Cambridge Analytica harvested data from 87 million Facebook users and subsequently influenced both the Brexit vote and the election of Donald . What further singles out Cadwalladrs crusade from the usual journalistic self-promotion, though, is that she has expressed a political objective: a Mueller-style public inquiry into Brexit. Though the High Court did not consider the case to be a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), RSF and the wider UK anti-SLAPP coalition have characterised it as such, because it was aimed at isolating and intimidating Cadwalladr. She crowdfunded posing as the underdog truth-teller against the big rich Russian agent and then last night (having rinsed her supporters for cash till the last minute) she pulled out of the hearing. The judge then went through all the evidence. Her occasional podcast, produced independently of The Guardian, is called Dial M for Mueller.. "Who has the information, who has the data about you, that is where power now lies," Cadwalladr says. In 2017, after publishing an article on the companys ties to the American billionaire Robert Mercer, Cadwalladr began contacting former employees on LinkedIn. Mr Banks, the founder of the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, sued Ms. Subscribe to leave a comment. The article eventually came out a month laterappearing in both the New Review and, in shorter form, the news pagesafter almost a year of work. "We are pleased that the judge dismissed the majority of the appeal against Cadwalladr," the members of the UK Anti-SLAPPs Coalition said. Dont forget your child should come to school in costume as their favourite character tomorrow Its the email every parent dreads receiving. Cadwalladr says she hopes to use these fundsas well as winnings from a 20,000 ($22,500) prize given to her by Swedens Stieg Larsson Foundationto create her own website, called The Citizens, to lead the online Twitter sleuths. These are the anti-Brexit and anti-Trump activists she collaborates with, blending campaigning with citizen journalism and, she hopes, eventually connecting the dots between Donald Trump, Russia, and Brexit. It has also been updated to clarify that Cadwalladr accused Nigel Farages Brexit party of being willing to accept foreign funds. Like my worst nightmare was how she described the comments, trying to shame me for not being married, for not having children, for being a middle-aged woman. Many of the recurring Twitter attacks she mentioned to me appeared to be themed on the notorious barb from Neil, the BBC journalist: Trolls disparage her, commenting that it is time to feed the cat or crazy cat lady kicking off again. The BBC anchor, she says, has not apologized. Most of us would have backed down and offered a grovelling apologyin the face of the stupendous financial penalty if we fought and lost such a case. For three years, as a friend and colleague ofCadwalladrs, Ive seen howlawyers have dominated herlife. Carole Cadwalladr's Age. Theresa May, hardly a woke leftist, had warned when she was prime minister that the Kremlin was: Deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions., Leaked emails from Banks ledCadwalladr to consider that there had been a series of invitations from and to (the Russian) Ambassador Yakovenko, many of which were accepted (and that Bankshad been offered preferential shares in an investment scheme to consolidate several Russian goldmines and the privatisation of a state-owned Russian diamond company, which he declined.). Individuals can, in the age of social media, reach huge audiences but it has its risks. Only 1 a week after your trial. Do you want to defend the right to information? The court of appeal rejected that argument, but upheld his claim that he had in fact suffered serious harm after the Electoral Commissions findings were published. Carole Jane Cadwalladr ( / kdwldr /; born 1969) is a British author, investigative journalist and features writer. Learn more about alternatives to declawing from the Jackson Galaxy video below. [17] Banks lost the case on 13 June 2022. A GNM spokesperson said: Carole Cadwalladrs award-winning journalism has prompted worldwide debate on social media, privacy and political targeting. [29] The organisation is made up of journalists, filmmakers, advertising creatives, data scientists, artists, students and lawyers, and intends to crowdfund individual projects and campaigns. A Guardian News and Media spokesperson acknowledged that the company was not offering financial support, but said they were helping in other ways, including by working with press-freedom groups and by continuing to publish her articles. One of thejudges conclusions wasthat Cadwalladrhad reasonable grounds for believing that statements made by Banks regarding his relationship with the Russian government were inaccurate. Using the near magical power an English legal education gives learned judges, he decided that what her statements had actually meant was that Banks was telling lies abouta secret relationship he had with the Russian government in relation to acceptance of foreign funding of electoral campaigns in breach of the law. She will continue to defend the claim and we anticipate that the case will be heard at trial next year". The particular approach Cadwalladr brought to her reporting was obvious to Shahmir Sanni, a former volunteer for Vote Leave. Cadwalladrs costs must be about the same, and it is very unlikely that the court will order that she andher supporters be reimbursed alltheir money. Putting names to archive photos, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, In photos: India's disappearing single-screen cinemas. "I am so profoundly grateful and relieved," said Ms Cadwalladr, who first reported the Cambridge Analytica data scandal where harvested data was used during elections. She sharply criticizes the BBCBritains public broadcaster, which is still largely revered both here and abroadas no longer being impartial and having engaged in a cover-up over the illegalities she has reported, and once took legal action against Channel 4 News, a former partner on her stories, accusing it of attempting to breach a publication agreement against her sources wishes. See our events page for our next one. (Or one of them, anyway.) '[19] The letter described the case a so-called SLAPP suit Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation. [24], On 26 November 2020, the day before a strike-out hearing, the Press Gazette reported that she "has been ordered to pay 62,000 in costs to Banks after withdrawing her defences of truth and limitation just one day before the next hearing in the case was scheduled to take place on Thursday morning", in the light of the judge's determination of the meaning of certain words. (Or one of them, anyway.) (Wylie did not respond to an interview request or a message that Cadwalladr says she sent him suggesting he speak with me for this article; his lawyer did not respond to a request for comment on the financial-backer arrangement. Brexit-supporting businessman Arron Banks has won a partial victory in his ongoing libel case with journalist Carole Cadwalladr, over comments she made in a TED Talk. The journalists successful defence is a testament to her courage and a warning to the very wealthy that they cant rely on the courts to escape criticism, Arron Banks set out to crush me in court. She and her friends pumped poisonous toxins into post-2016 Britain, from a position of considerable privilege and with some serious financial backing of their own. Cadwalladr's first novel, The Family Tree, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Author's Club First Novel Award, the Waverton Good Read Award, and the Wales Book of the Year. Normally journalists have the financial and legal support of a newspaper or a broadcaster. Although the court acknowledged that Cadwalladr does not have control over TED's publications, she will nonetheless be liable for the damages arising from the publication of the TED Talk after April 2020. Reacting to the decision in a Twitter thread, Cadwalladr described the case as absurdity after absurdity and Kafkaesque, and noted she had won on two out of three grounds of principle. Wylie would never have trusted them, and the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica story would have gone unreported. She says she found it entirely reasonable for Wylie to seek a financial backer because he was taking a huge legal and financial risk in coming forward, which required him to break a nondisclosure agreement. Anywhere and anytime. Does it matter? That liberal democracy was broken. When is Eurovision and how do you get tickets? Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. No commitment. No commitment. Sorry, no results found! These cats are either two-paw or four-paw declaw. I n the imaginations of her detractors, Carole Cadwalladr's apartment, in North London, should be empty, except maybe for a wall outfitted with corkboard and covered in news clippings about Mark Zuckerberg and Alexander Nix, the CEO of the now-defunct targeted-advertising firm Cambridge Analytica. Cadwalladr is constantly relitigating her findings online, and fending off activist media outlets such as the pro-Brexit website Guido Fawkes, which has published stories attempting to discredit her work. Before she found herself on the trail that led to her fame, Cadwalladr and a friend were developing a script for a television show. Cadwalladr began her talk by recounting a trip she took after the Brexit referendum, back to her [] Journalist Carole Cadwalladr says 'the gods of Silicon Valley' have broken democracy . She has also reported on alleged links between Nigel Farage, the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and the Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election that has been investigated in the United States. because it was aimed at isolating and intimidating Cadwalladr. If you want evidence for the mess it has caused, just look around you. ", A.R.F. "[14] She summarised her speech in an article in The Observer: "as things stood, I didn't think it was possible to have free and fair elections ever again. Decisions by the courts then made it as hard as possible for her to win. But to her opponents, many of whom use sexist and ageist language to discredit her work, she is a conspiracy theorist. Though The Guardian has a large full-time staff based in London and elsewhere, itlike many other outlets, including The Atlanticalso employs freelance journalists and pays them for individual stories or projects. By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our.