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Friday, 31 March, 2000, 11:22 GMT 12:22 UK
Magazine folds after libel bill
![]() The image behind the trial
LM, the left-wing magazine successfully sued for libel by ITN, has closed down after being ordered to pay £375,000.
The case, which also left the magazine - formerly known as Living Marxism - facing £500,000 legal costs has sparked a row over issues of free speech. ITN, and its reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams, brought the action following the publication of LM's article accusing them of misrepresenting Bosnian war images. LM's publishers say the magazine's current edition is likely to be its last monthly issue and have criticised ITN for its "heavy-handed" approach.
Editor Mick Hume and co-publisher Helene Guldberg say they also face personal bankruptcy, although both are working on plans for a new magazine to succeed LM.
The LM article, headlined "The picture that fooled the world", accused ITN of deliberately misrepresenting an image which later became a symbol of the horrors of the Bosnian war. Its author, German journalist Thomas Deichmann, claimed that images of emaciated Muslims held behind barbed wire were taken from outside an open-access refugee camp. However, the jury accepted that the camp was a prison and the ITN pictures had represented the truth. Despite their court success, ITN and the two reporters have been criticised for launching an action seen as a blow to free speech.
Supporters including Doris Lessing, Margaret Drabble, Fay Weldon and Auberon Waugh have all voiced concern over the action which, they say, should have been kept away from the courts.
Writing after the trial, Ms Guldberg said: "The use of libel law as a last resort may be understandable, when all other avenues have failed. As a first resort, it is inexcusable. "If LM magazine went running to the High Court whenever libelled, we would be multimillionaires by now (as would many other journalists)." Mr Hume added: "The use of the (libel) law by a large news organisation against a magazine with a circulation of 10,000 could have far reaching implications for independent and investigative journalism." A statement issued after the trial by Mr Williams and Ms Marshall defended their action. "There is absolutely no doubt that freedom of speech is essential to society. But the freedom to print lies masquerading as the truth, as LM did, is not," it said. ITN refused to comment on news of the magazine's closure. |
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