Carter-Ruck represents Dr Ashti Hawrami, formerly the Minister of Natural Resources and later, the Assistant Prime Minister for Energy Affairs in the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The claim relates to an article published online by Journalism Development Network Inc (through their website OCCRP) and two of its journalists. The article contains several references to Dr Hawrami which have led to his bringing proceedings against the Defendants in libel.
The Defendants denied that the article was defamatory of Dr Hawrami. They also submitted that the article was a fair and accurate report of the judgment and proceedings in a separate legal case (to which Dr Hawrami was not a party) and that parts of the article should be protected by a qualified privilege pursuant to s.15 of the Defamation Act 1996.
In her judgment dated 23 August 2024, Mrs Justice Steyn held that the article was defamatory of Dr Hawrami at common law. She also found that the article did not constitute a fair and accurate report of the other legal proceedings and that the Defendants’ defence of statutory qualified privilege failed. The Judge found that the OCCRP Article is a ‘critically different text’ from the material contained in that judgment, such that the ‘quality of fairness required for reporting privilege has been entirely lost’.
Mrs Justice Steyn said that the real impression that the other legal proceedings gave was that Dr Hawrami ‘is a man of honour and integrity, working against corruption in the interests of the autonomous region of Kurdistan’, which was in contrast to that of the article over which Dr Hawrami has brought proceedings.
The full judgment [2024 EWHC 2194 (KB)] can be found here.
The Defendants still seek to rely on a public interest defence under s.4 of the 2013 Act which will be determined at a later date as the case progresses towards trial.
Dr Hawrami is represented by Antonia Foster and Caitlin Harris, and by Adrienne Page KC and Tom Blackburn of 5RB.
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