Journalist to appeal ruling that Telegraph apology over her Melania Trump reporting was not defamatory (PressGazette)
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…
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”…”