View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
September 4, 2020updated 30 Sep 2022 9:33am

Journalist to appeal ruling that Telegraph apology over her Melania Trump reporting was not defamatory

By Charlotte Tobitt

A US journalist will appeal a High Court ruling that The Daily Telegraph did not defame her when it issued an apology to US First Lady Melania Trump over an article she had written.

Nina Burleigh wrote a cover story, headlined “The mystery of Melania”, for the Telegraph’s Saturday magazine in January last year.

A week later, the newspaper removed the online article and published an apology to the First Lady saying it had “contained a number of false statements which we accept should not have been published”. The title also agreed to pay Trump substantial damages.

Burleigh argued that the “lurid” apology, which did not name her, made her an “international poster girl for fake news” but was disappointed this week when a High Court judge disagreed.

She has now said she intends to appeal the ruling, which saw Mr Justice Nicklin give his “provisional view” in the Telegraph’s favour.

The article largely contained reporting from Burleigh’s book Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump’s Women which Burleigh said was “carefully sourced and fact-checked”.

She added: “In my view, it does not reflect well on the Telegraph that it instantly capitulated to pressure from Mrs Trump without first investing proper effort into fact-checking her claims.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Burleigh’s lawyer Dr Jef McAllister, managing partner of solicitors McAllister Olivarius, said he was “disappointed and surprised” by the ruling.

“Ms Burleigh brought this action to clear her name, and the judge has determined that she cannot do so because the Telegraph piece apologising for her work was not technically defamatory of her,” he said.

“We find it hard to understand how the Telegraph could agree to retract a piece written by Ms Burleigh and to pay substantial damages to Mrs Trump as a result without that reflecting badly on Ms Burleigh’s competence as a journalist and author – but that appears to be the court’s reasoning.

“We believe this to be fundamentally wrong and intend to appeal.

“No journalist whose currency is the trust of editors and readers could suffer such a public repudiation of her work without cost to her professional reputation.

“The facts of what happened to Ms Burleigh after the Telegraph’s retraction was published and republished around the world clearly demonstrate that it did in fact hurt her professional reputation.

“We hope that the Court of Appeal will allow Ms Burleigh’s pursuit of vindication to continue.”

Adrienne Page QC, representing Telegraph Media Group, had told the court that publishers should be able to publish an “unexceptional and orthodox” apology without a court ruling it is defamatory of the author of the original article.

According to the judgment, Page said it “should not be necessary for a publisher who has published an apology to be faced with the burden of advancing a substantive defence”.

Mr Justice Nicklin said: “In my judgment, the apology neither alleges nor implies any culpable failure on the part of the claimant [Burleigh]; it does not suggest that there was any want of skill or care on her part.

“The corrections of the ‘false statements’ are not of a gravity that suggests a fundamental failure on the part of the claimant, as author of the original article.

“On the contrary, they would strike the hypothetical reader as being trivial or insubstantial.

“Most importantly, the apology contains no attribution of fault or blame for the errors.”

Picture: Reuters/Carlos Barria 

Topics in this article : , ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network