Antonia Cundy, Madison Marriage and Paul Caruana Galizia of the Financial Times write about how the paper prepared to defend itself against claims by investor Crispin Odey that its reporting about his sexual harassment was malicious.
Cundy, Marriage and Galizia write, “In court, the FT planned to run two defences: truth and public interest. The first relied on recruiting witnesses to testify to what the newspaper had published.
“The reporters — the authors of this article — asked their sources: would you come to the FT’s defence? Some immediately said yes. But many others wavered. Emotionally, it was a huge ask. Telling their story all over again and having it picked apart in court would be stressful at best. Most of them had been anonymous in the articles. Their biggest concern was that while a court was likely to grant them public anonymity, meaning their names could not be reported in the press, as witnesses, they would have to unmask themselves to Odey.
“In the end, the FT’s trial was scheduled for June and July 2026, two years after the claim was served and three years after the articles were published. For several women, the idea of Odey living in their heads for that length of time was an agonising prospect.
“One woman eventually declined, in tears, only to change her mind weeks later. Several others felt they had given enough to the journalistic process a year earlier and could not bring themselves to go any further. But in February 2025, the FT handed Odey a list of 15 women who were willing to come to court on its behalf.”
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