UPDATE 07/09 12:00 The Craig Murray defence fund has just sailed serenely past £50,000 in electronic donations in almost precisely 24 hours, even before any of the cheques have arrived. It is a perfect illustration of the grossly disproportionate threat to freedom of speech that is the English libel system, that this is not sufficient and we have to persevere with the appeal.
2,080 people have donated an average of £24. The largest single donation is £4,000. There are also hundreds of £3 and £5 donations which do really add up. I am absolutely stunned by the outpouring of kindness I have experienced – though in fairness I should mention the significant minority who say they are motivated by despisal of the Daily Mail.
ORIGINAL POST
I am being sued for libel in the High Court in England by Jake Wallis Simons, Associate Editor of the Daily Mail Online. Mr Wallis Simons is demanding £40,000 in damages and the High Court has approved over £100,000 in costs for Mark Lewis, Mr Wallis Simons’ lawyer. I may become liable for all of this should I lose the case, and furthermore I have no money to pay for my defence. I am currently a defendant in person. This case has the potential to bankrupt me and blight the lives of my wife and children. I have specifically been threatened by Mr Lewis with bankruptcy.
Mr Wallis Simons boasts on his website:
In 2015, I published a series of articles exposing Jeremy Corbyn’s links with anti-Semitic figures, and this led to what is now known as the “Labour anti-Semitism scandal.”
It was my Sky TV appearance on this subject which led to this libel action against me.
It is my view that English libel law remains an international disgrace, a device by which the wealthy and those with wealthy backers, and only they, can stifle freedom of speech. Contempt of Court laws – with a penalty of two years imprisonment – even prevent poor defendants like me from putting their case openly before the public in order to appeal for a public defence fund. I am extremely limited in what I can tell you.
How can it cost just one party six times the average annual national wage to litigate a five minute TV broadcast? The libel system, with its in-built advantage to the wealthy and those backed by the wealthy, is a complete disgrace. Andy Wightman, the brilliant Scottish land reform campaigner, has been going through the same Hell.
I find I am obliged to beg you for funds to help me defend the case. I need to ask every single person who reads this blog to find it in their heart to make at least some contribution, as much as you can afford. The scale of this thing is such that I need to ask those of you who are comfortably off to make a far larger donation than you might normally consider. In practice we are going to need to include some four figure donations to make the ludicrous amounts required. But every single penny mounts up and please do give something.
If you have ever enjoyed this blog – join the fight. If you dislike this blog but support freedom of speech – join the fight. If you support the right to defend Palestine without being labelled ant-Semitic – join the fight. If you despised the anti-Corbyn media campaign – join the fight. If the Daily Mail sickens you – join the fight.
Every donation, no matter how small, will be gratefully received. The case will be heard in the High Court on 7 November. In the event of victory, after costs are met (even a costs award does not cover all actual costs) excess donations will be returned pro-rata unless you specify they should be applied to the future of maintaining the blog.
This is a question not only of the continued existence of this blog, but of the future well-being of my young family. It is unfair on you for me to place all of that in your hands, but that is the situation into which I am forced.
UPDATE 06/09 20:00 In just 8 hours we have received £21,790 in donations to the fighting fund. This is a fantastic start. 836 individuals have donated, making the average donation £26. The largest donation received is £1,000 and the smallest are £3. I am incredibly humbled and grateful that we are starting to have a chance. There have been so many kind messages, of which “you cast a lot of bread upon the waters helping others, Craig” made me greet for a bit. I have particularly enjoyed those from people who declare they agree with almost nothing I say but support free speech! About 60% of donations are from Scotland, but so far we have 22 different countries.
I really cannot express my gratitude enough.
On a practical point, a number of people have said they are not members of Paypal so could not donate. After clicking on “Donate”, just below and left of the “Log In” button is a small “continue” link which enables you to pay by card without logging in. For those who prefer not to pay online, you can send a cheque made out to me to Craig Murray, 89/14 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8BA. As regular readers know, it is a matter of pride to me that I never hide my address. A surprising number of people have asked for a Bitcoin option and we are working on it.
I found this interview by the lawyer who is suing me to be particularly interesting. I may say no more than that without danger of contempt of court.
I’m an occasional reader, and sometimes even agree with you.
I agree the English Libel system is a joke.
Happy to have contributed a little. Very best of luck!
Shall donate when I get home (Australia). If nothing else, I hope Craig wins because Associate Editors really shouldn’t be so thin-skinned. If some says something about you, make a correction, then move on. I’m not familiar with the case, but even had Craig called Mr Whatsisname an axe-murderer, he could have just laughed it off. Instead, he sues a guy knowing it may cause financial hardship.
Imagine my shock when I discovered that Mr Simons was an Oxbridge graduate. Not for the first time, I truly wonder what they teach at Oxbridge. Clearly they don’t teach people to grow a pair.
I deplore Wallis Simons’ part in creating what he calls the “Labour anti-Semitism scandal”. I despise the Daily Mail. I defend freedom of speech. I believe British libel laws are a disgrace. I admire Craig Murray’s integrity. For all these reasons I feel compelled to contribute a small sum to Mr Murray’s fighting fund, and wish him well.
“Anti-semitic: It is a trick, we always use it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kWAqZxJVE
I will donate something later today.
Thanks for the youtube link Daniel, very revealing. It´s good to know there are still truthful Israelis around.
Good luck Craig, hope you stuff the Zionist bar steward.
Donated. Good luck Craig. Whatever the outcome, and please let the action be unsuccessful, Jake Wallis Simons has already lost.
A modest donation but I hope it helps.
Your posts are some of the most prescient, insightful and informative on social media.
Good luck and lang may yer lum reek.
Happy to help in what small way I can . Good luck Craig .
So he calls you an antisemite, you call him a liar and this loathsome shit of a man has the gall to sue YOU?
Come what may, this is going to turn around and bite the bas*ards in the butt.
Very important to spread the case about, approach Michael Mansfield (as has already been suggested) and get ‘crowd funded’.
I’m always broke, as I’m on a State Pension and a bit too fond of the booze.
While I was working I gave up about 5 days work to go to Blackburn to help in campaigning in Craig’s attempt to take the MP seat from the ‘Man of Straw’, the detestable Jack Straw, who wished to keep Craig’s revelations of Uzbekistan’s boiling prisoners alive out of the public’s eyes.
I salute all who are supporting Craig in his latest travails, once more caused by his ‘telling truth to power’.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch:
‘Israel plans to build 2,500 illegal settler units in West Bank’:
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/08/09/479209/Palestine-Israel-East-Jerusalem-alQuds
MSM coverage ‘0’, I suspect. As for Simons and Co., even less then ‘0’, if that’s possible.
This case will further wake people up to the malignant influence a foreign state, and it’s ‘religious’ supporters here in the UK, have over our governance and ‘free speech’.
Israel is an Apartheid State, BY DEFINITION. It’s a lot worse, but best not go into that. And I am not ‘Anti-Semitic’, being a Christian with Jewish blood (Jesus was a Jew as well, remember; what would he have said about the present Israeli regime’s treatment of the indigenous Palestinians?).
I am charity worker Campaigning against Extreme poverty and discrimination.I also have been a victim of discrimination by a Country court Judge and High court Judge who also branded us liars.I am Pakistani origin British citizen .These judges were defending English Defendents and a English Company called Anglian windows even no work was done By the company I was made to pay £16000 for no valid reason and I lost £25000 all together.very stressful.
Where one can get justice ?any one who knows will be grateful
You mention another person facing the same issue and I’m presuming that there are other cases and no doubt will be other victims of the libel laws in future. It’s a shame there isn’t a permanent fighting fund that folk could donate to and draw upon if necessary. If there should be such a fund or if one should be established I would prefer the balance of my donation(assuming that all the money isn’t used) to be redirected there
Chipped in with what I could afford today. Will do the same next week. Let’s beat these bullying thugs into oblivion.
50 quid, on its way from Portland Oregon, currently being suffocated by a wildfire.
Screw the Daily Mail.
we have yer back brother. dont let these bullying daily mail scum get to you. happy to make a small contribution.
Good luck x
Donated and shared. Good luck!
Our friend has a lot to say about every subject under the sun.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JakeWSimons
On his blog a photo of the IDF occurs repeatedly.
http://www.jakewallissimons.com
I would like to donate Craig, but I really don’t like Paypal due to being hacked once before and stung for over a grand. Luckily I got that back. It’s not an amount I could afford to lose either then or now.
If there is another secure method of donation you could supply than I gladly will.
All the best in your fight against these slimeballs.
Good luck Craig. At present I am out of the country, when I return I’ll send a cheque for the average amount. I prefer not to use visa. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but I will, keep on with your request, I’m sure you will get your £40,000 before November. All the best from Gloria
Dear Craig,
I have made a small donation to your campaign fund.
I regularly read your blog and appreciate your writing. I have no exact idea of the issues of the case, but as you are defending I assume that you have not libelled the plaintiff.
It is outrageous that the plaintiff’s statement of claim against you is not a matter of public record.
I wish you the best.
Peter Bowing
I’m an occasional reader. I’m broadly in line with your views, Craig, but differ on a fair few too. But this is a fight worth fighting. Good luck.
The Times of Israel presents Mark Lewis as a freedom fighter for Israel and every freedom fighter is another man/woman’s terrorist. The motivation for this libel case is not truth or morality. It is Zionism.
The Times of Israel implies that only Zionists love Israel. What Zionism has become is an exceptionalist, racist entity in the world, not just the Muslim Middle East. It seeks to pervert Islam and prejudice Islam’s reputation by financing Islamic State and employing Islamists to fight a proxy war against Syria’s Assad in the Golan and further afield. It controls its neighbour Jordan and uses its territory to train and finance terrorists.
I love Israel. It’s a Holy Land. But I also love Islam, which the Jesus-deniers called a pearl for which anyone would dropo everything to obtain.
Worldwide, the strategy of the Zionists is to pervert Islam and it does so from a position of enourmous weakness. Jesus pbuh cursed the scholars of his faith for extortion from the weak and for compound interest, for adopting the false beliefs of the polytheist Romans and Hindus between whom they traded across the land of Palestine and whose false doctrines they incorporated into the Middle East. If anyone has a case for libel it is against the Zionists for perverting the reputation of Islam by sponsoring terrorism.
do the Zionists think that by sponsoring un-Islamic Islamism, i.e. terrorism, the rest of the world will overlook the state terrorism of the Israeli government against the Palestinians? Do they think they’re libel against Islam is un-provable because they are protected by every single nation’s secrecy about matters of intelligence?
It is obvious why this Zionist has targeted Craig Murray. Obvious that an opponent of apartheid is not aagainst Jews or even Israel. I love Israel. It is a Holy Land for Muslims and I adore it. Obvious as well that Craig Murray has lifted a little bit of veil of secrecy shrouding the international conspiracy to prevent the growth of Islam, a conspoiracy one should recognise by the words of Jesus pbuh, By their fruit you should know them, the fruit being thirty years of continuous war in our lifetimes against the Muslim countries by the West.
Mark Lewis will rue the day he picked this false fight with Craig Murray, because the whole edifice of Zionist perversion and state sponsored terror has been exploded by Russia and China’s persistent exposure of people like Boris Johnson and John McCain’s support for proxy terrorists. Truth is like a baby ready for birth.
Thirty years of constant war will put the West in the dock and China as Judge. But cowards as they are the Zionists always pick on people they think are weak. Craig Murray’s supporters outnumber Zionists by an order of one million to one. God is always on the side of the just. Criminal apartheid supporters and state terrorists will be given a little rope to hang themselves, and then be sent to hell. You wanna fight. Bring it on Mark Lewis.
Ref your second para. The usual anti Assad propaganda from the BBC.
‘Israeli jets hit Syria’s Masyaf chemical site’ – reports
27 minutes ago
Screengrab of a video posted by a pro-Syrian government blogger purportedly showing the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on a Syrian military post near Masyaf on 7 September 201 7Image copyright Ivan Sidorenko
The Syrian army says Israeli jets have attacked a military base in the west of the country, amid reports of a strike on a suspected chemical weapons site.
A statement said rockets fired from Lebanese airspace hit the site near Masyaf, killing two soldiers. Arab media and a monitoring group reported that a chemical weapons production facility was targeted.
Israel, which has carried out clandestine attacks on weapons sites in Syria before, has not commented. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to discuss the reports, saying it does not comment on operational matters. Lebanese media also reported that Israeli jets had violated Lebanese airspace.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41184867
Israel is always fanning the flames for war.
Good luck, Craig, and of course to your family too, in what has to be a dreadful situation for you all.
I hope you are able to come through it successfully.
I will send you a cheque for £100.
Good luck, again.
God bless and may justice be served.
Sad world if one of the few truth tellers in British public life is bankrupted by enemies of the truth. Happy to donate, but fingers crossed justice will be served.
Why are there still so many English people, stupid enough to pay fascist liars? If there was any justice left in this poxy little country, The Mail, Sky and the Sun would be a thing of the past and Corbyn would be a Majority Prime Minister! Love is the only truth, the rest is just hateful lies and opinion.
Cheque in the post. Freedom of speech is extremely dear to me. Keep you chin up.
I’ll send you a cheque for what I can, Craig, and I’ll also stop linking to the Mail, even when they have something juicy on my favourite detestable lawyer. BDS for them. Good luck.
It’s a badge of honour to be aligned against the exceptionalist bullies of Tel Aviv and their ‘British’ choir.
PS,
Going back to your linked post, the implication that the Guardian has actively suppressed a crucial article is perhaps worth following up. I’m wondering if Private Eye, with its extensive journalistic contacts, might be able to help?. I think Francis Wheen might be sympathetic.
I withdraw this suggestion on learning that Wheen now has some affinity with Oliver Kamm. This looks a lot more recent than my own indirect knowledge of Wheen as a supporter – from his own pocket – of struggling leftwingers in the 70’s.
Often happens, I’m afraid. But I guess he’s a neocon now. Sorry.
Sent.
Craig Murray deserves our support and I urge everyone to donate.
Bill Smith
The state of our civilisation has o doubt now reached medieval proportions the rich can lie, bully and boast with their wealth shamelessly while ordinary people’s views are shut out off the public sphere. I congratulate you, Craig Murray, for your research and wish you and all of us supporters of your work success.
If I have this right: he quoted something you wrote that on the spot you didn’t recognise. So you called him a liar. You later looked it up and conceded you did write that. And maybe if he’d had it there to show you and prove it you would have conceded it then and there?
Very implausible that there could be “actual or probable serious harm” to his reputation. Or any harm at all really. YOU got the egg on your face by being wrong about something. He’s entitled to wear a smirk for a while.
As a journalist – he’s got the platform already to do that smirking on – unlike ordinary people. He comes out of the little spat rather well – not damaged. Journalists have to roll with someone calling them a liar – that’s got to be part and parcel of his profession. As a journalist you then prove you were right all along – reputation enhanced not diminished.
What journalist never got called a liar when someone got put on the spot and got defensive?
How does your reputation get damaged – when you’re a journalist? Only if you were lying.
Here’s a good example to be followed:
“The Jewish reporter whom President Donald Trump interrupted and accused of lying at a news conference defended Trump’s actions as owing to a misunderstanding.”
http://www.jta.org/2017/02/17/news-opinion/united-states/jewish-journalist-sticks-up-for-trump-after-being-called-a-liar
How does your reputation get damaged – when you’re a journalist?
Simples. By working for the Mail.
Je, Excellent legal analysis. Straight to the point and the heart of the matter.