Qatar's Sheikha Mouza Wins £500,000 Libel Victory

Her Highness Sheikha Mouza Al Misnad, the wife of the Emir of Qatar, has won her long-running libel action against the UK-based Arabic daily newspaper Azzaman.

Azzaman published no fewer than four articles attacking Sheikha Mouza during the summer of 2001. These articles contained a wide array of untrue and extremely serious allegations concerning Sheikha Mouza, ranging from improper interference in political, judicial and security matters in Qatar to engagement in secret dealings with Israel.

In the defence originally mounted to Sheikha Mouza's claim, the editor and publishers of Azzaman did not seek to argue that a single one of the allegations they had published was true. Instead, they sought to persuade the court that the articles they had published were based upon material received from reliable sources which Azzaman, as "a serious and independent newspaper", had a duty to impart to its readership and that the offending articles were therefore protected by the "responsible journalism" defence known as Reynolds qualified privilege.

However, at a preliminary hearing Sheikha Mouza's legal team (headed by Carter-Ruck partners Cameron Doley and Adam Tudor and consultant Saad Djebbar - who took over from her previous representatives early in 2004) were able to provide the court with evidence (including letters, reports and banking records) demonstrating that, far from being a "serious and independent newspaper", Azzaman was in fact controlled by the intelligence services of another Arab state which had used the newspaper as its mouthpiece in a campaign of black propaganda against Qatar and its leadership.

Mr Justice Eady ruled this evidence admissible and, in an important judgment defining the limits that apply to pleas of Reynolds qualified privilege, held that the law in the United Kingdom is "primarily directed, as a matter of public policy, to protecting independent and serious journalism rather than those running propaganda or political campaigns… If it be the case that a newspaper presents itself to its readers as independent, whereas truly it is a propaganda tool, it is likely that it will have in some respects at least been deceiving its readers, rather than discharging a duty to them".

Faced with the prospect of seeing their role in the propaganda campaign being dissected at trial, the Defendants swiftly capitulated and agreed to meet all of Sheikha Mouza's long-standing requirements for settlement. They published a front-page apology in which they accepted that there was no truth whatsoever in any of the allegations they had published. They also apologised to Sheikha Mouza in similarly fulsome terms by way of statement in open court and undertook not to publish any of the offending allegations at any time in the future. They paid substantial damages (which were donated by Sheikha Mouza to the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians), together with the Sheikha's legal costs. The total sum paid by Azzaman under the settlement was in excess of £500,000.

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Summer 2005