by: SKWAWKBOX (SW)
For a change it’s not Harpin – this time former Mail hack authored untrue article
The Jewish Chronicle has – again – been forced to issue a public apology and pay undisclosed damages for printing false accusations against a left-winger.
The paper has published an apology to black activist Marc Wadsworth for an ‘exclusive’ article published in March that accused him of conspiracy to ‘intimidate, threaten or harass Jewish activists’ – accusations that the right-wing rag has now had to admit were wholly false. The Chronicle’s article has now been deleted, but is still quoted, with screenshots, on right-wing anti-left websites.
The apology reads:
In our issue of 12 March, we reported that Marc Wadsworth had spoken at the launch event for the ‘Labour in Exile Network’ (LIEN), a group that aimed to discover the addresses of Jewish Labour activists to “take care” of them, and that he was thereby complicit in a conspiracy to intimidate, threaten or harass Jewish activists into silence. We also suggested that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that such activities were criminal. Our story was wrong. Mr Wadsworth did not speak or even attend the online event. Mr Wadsworth is not a member of LIEN and we accept that he has not been involved in any of the group’s activities. We apologise to Mr Wadsworth for our error and have agreed to pay damages to him.
Emphases added. Note, the real date of the original ‘exclusive’ appears to be 15 March, not 12 March
This is the latest in a string of untrue claims for which the Chronicle has had to pay damages and/or apologise – including significant compensation for a ‘litany of lies’ against Liverpool pensioner Audrey White, accusations of antisemitism against a Muslim woman councillor and ‘utterly untrue’ allegations of terrorism against a Palestinian aid charity. The paper was also heavily criticised by ‘regulator’ IPSO for its articles about Ms White and for its failure to cooperate with IPSO’s investigation.
In the latest instance, however, the culprit is not repeat offender Lee Harpin but former Mail hack Jake Wallis-Simons. Simons also has form, having penned an article for his old paper claiming that leading Jewish Voice for Labour activists had been disciplined by Labour for racism. The accusations in the article were completely false and that right-wing rag was forced to admit they were untrue, issuing a humiliating apology:
Marc Wadsworth was expelled from the Labour party in 2018 after false accusations of antisemitism – despite the existence of video evidence that showed he had not behaved as accused.
