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The Sun rinsed for ‘substantial damages’ in civil settlement

The Sun newspaper has yet again agreed to pay through the nose because of its past reporting. In this instance, they’ve apologised to Christopher Jefferies and paid him “substantial damages”.

Despite this happening fairly frequently, Keir Starmer has abandoned completing the Leveson 2 inquiry into press standards. It would be pretty awkward if he didn’t, of course, given the fact that he occasionally writes for the Sun now.

The damages done

As reported by the BBC, the police wrongfully arrested Jefferies for the murder of Joanna Yeates in 2010. This case ended up being a textbook example of why journalists should wait to know what’s happening before publishing front pages like the following:

Sun front pages casting aspersions on Jefferies

Jefferies said the reporting “had a damaging and long-lasting effect on him and his private life, including his standing in the community and to his relationships with some friends”.

It wasn’t bad journalism which landed the Sun‘s publisher in hot water, however, it was the accusation that the Sun and the News of the World intercepted Jefferies’ voicemails. As the BBC writes:

NGN agreed damages but made “no admission of liability in relation to the claimant’s allegations of voicemail interception and/or other unlawful information gathering at The Sun”, the court was told.

While they’re accepting no liability, many will of course see they payout as an admission of guilt. This is especially the case given the fact that this keeps happening:

Will anything change?

Back in the 2010s, the ‘phone hacking scandal’ prompted politicians to finally take a look at the UK’s corporate-captured media. Unfortunately, however, Labour have back-pedalled on any commitment to tackle this filthy industry. Here’s what James Wright wrote for the Canary in 2024:

Rupert Murdoch family-owned News UK received “private assurances” that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party government would not carry out an inquiry into press standards, according to iNews. News UK-owned titles the Sun and the Sunday Times then endorsed Starmer, once they’d gotten assurances that Leveson 2 would not go ahead.

Leveson 2 is the would-be second part of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards. The first part was launched in 2011. That’s after Murdoch-owned and now defunct News of the World had been found to be hacking phones.

The second part would look further into the relationship between the press and the police to see if there’s complicity in transgressions.

When Starmer ran for the Labour leadership, he said he wouldn’t give interviews to the Sun – not least because of the Hillsborough scandal. Starmer would later clarify this position (i.e. ‘go back on his word’):

He’d then make things even worse:

Starmer didn’t just speak to the Sun, either; he actually started writing for them. Victims of the Hillsborough disaster criticised Starmer, and yet he’s continued his writing gig even after becoming prime minister. No doubt he thinks this is smart politics, but he would wouldn’t he, given the fact that he’s the guy to have taken Labour to its worst polling ever:

You can read more on this in Paul Holden’s The Fraud:

Pay outs

Newspapers like the Sun have been facing operating losses for years, and this isn’t helped by payouts like this one. The fact that the Sun doesn’t make money has led many to speculate that it’s only kept operational for its value as propaganda machine. We can’t confirm that, of course, but we can say it’s not because of their world class journalism.

Featured image via PickPik / Hudson Institute (Wikimedia)

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.