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ITN wins Bosnian war libel case
ITN and two of its reporters have won £375,000 in High Court libel damages against a Marxist magazine which claimed they had faked pictures of Bosnian Serb war crimes.
Reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams were each awarded £150,000 over the Living Marxism story which called into question ITN's coverage of the Bosnian war.
The small left-wing magazine was also ordered to pay £75,000 to ITN for libelling them in a February 1997 article headlined "The picture that fooled the world".
The jury in the High Court libel case had earlier been told by Mr Justice Morland in London that their decisions must be unanimous.
ITN, Penny Marshall and Ian Williams sued LM magazine (formerly Living Marxism) over a claim that they misrepresented an image of an emaciated Muslim, Fikret Alic, at the Serb-run Trnopolje camp in August 1992.
Selected shots
They said an article, editorial and press release, headed "The picture that fooled the world", published in January/February 1997, amounted to a highly damaging attack upon their reputations and professional integrity.
The magazine's editor, Michael Hume, and publishers Informinc (LM) Ltd and Helene Guldberg, had denied libel.
They had said the criticism of the reporters was justified because they had deliberately selected shots of Mr Alic "caged behind barbed wire".
They also relied on fair comment and said no-one would have understood the allegations to refer to ITN.
The article, written by German freelance Thomas Deichmann, asserted there was no barbed wire around the camp - which he said was a collection centre for refugees and not a prison.
He said the wire was actually around the news team, who were filming from a small enclosure next to the camp.
LM, which claimed it was a "shoe-string" operation constantly on the verge of going under financially, now faces a costs bill unofficially estimated at more than £300,000.
Untrue and unfounded
In a joint statement Ms Marshall and Mr Williams said after the jury's verdict: "We are pleased that the right verdict in this case has been reached and that the truth about what happened in the Bosnian detention camps has been exposed in open court.
"It is a verdict we were confident would come at the end of a trial that should never have had to happen."
The reporters said: "There was never any doubt whatsoever that the allegations made against us were both untrue and unfounded.
"The reports in question were filmed and presented with the professionalism and integrity that would be expected of us.
"LM was given every opportunity to retract the article and its allegations.
"Its decision not to do so resulted in our taking legal action in order to clear our names. "Today's verdict and award clearly vindicates that course of action and, perhaps more importantly, gives dignity to all those who were detained in the camps. "We have taken no pleasure in bringing this action but it was essential to do so in order to prevent others from assuming the allegations to be true. Today's verdict sets the record straight once and for all.
"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."
