Lawfare

Here we feature people who have been sued for what they have said or written, with the motive of silencing them or to deter others.

For example, this article about UK Lawyers for Israel says

The ‘lawfare’ organisation has especially targeted organisations promoting the Palestinian-initiated Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement – from academics to students unions, architects to local councils – by lodging complaints with regulatory bodies and sending letters threatening legal action.

Raffi Berg - Owen Jones

BBC Editor Sues Journalist For Calling Out Zionist Bias, also reported in BBC editor sues Owen Jones over Israel bias claim. It concerns Jones's article The BBC's Civil War Over Gaza (and there is more about Berg at Raffi Berg: BBC Middle East Editor Exposed as CIA, Mossad Collaborator).

Here is some further commentary from the Canary, BBC editor accused of Israel bias set to sue Owen Jones, which concludes "If the case goes to court, we look forward to learning more about what’s been going on at the BBC under Berg’s watch." Indeed.

Reginald D. Hunter

Campaign Against Antisemitism loses "vexatious" court case against Reginald D. Hunter, archived here. The article discusses the issue of "lawfare", and how in this case the private prosecution was found to be vexatious, the judgment is here.

The article mentions other cases, one of which is discussed next.

Shaun Lawson - Jane Heybroek

Shaun Lawson published a long article called "Enough is Enough: Rachel Riley, GnasherJew, and the Political Weaponisation of Antisemitism", archived here (also here). It discusses many aspects of British politics, with a particular focus on accusations of anti-semitism (a topic which I discuss at length here), and individuals involved.

This resulted in a rebuttal and response by Lawson, and a threat to sue him by an actress Tracy Ann Oberman. So Lawson wrote a second long article, called "Beneath Contempt: How Tracy Ann Oberman and Rachel Riley harassed, dogpiled and slandered a 16-year-old child and her father", archived here (also here). This second article discusses antisemitism in Britain, criticising media coverage of it, and the ignorance of the British public on several matters, which he blames on the media. But most of the article is about Tracy Ann Oberman's conduct repeatedly tweeting a girl (described as harassment).

It appears that a barrister Jane Heybroek was sued by Olberman and another media figure Rachel Riley for "retweeting a link to" the second Lawson article, the case being described at [2020] EWHC 1259 (QB). It was later dropped, see Rachel Riley and Tracy Ann Oberman drop libel case against barrister. There was no indication of why this particular person was sued, among the “hundreds of people” who retweeted or shared the article, or rather than the author of the article.

Ms Heybroek said that – notwithstanding being a barrister – it had been “a long, and at times exhausting experience, and I would not wish anyone to find themselves on the receiving end of legal action”.

She noted too that the claimants were represented under a conditional fee agreement backed by after-the-event insurance, meaning “there was almost no risk to them in bringing the claim”.

She spent £30,000 herself defending the claims and then raised £45,000 through crowdfunding website CrowdJustice.