Cadwalladr reports on Arron Banks' Russia links of huge public interest, court hears
Reporting by the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr on the “covert relationship” between the multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks and the Russian government was of the greatest public interest imaginable, her lawyer has told the high court.
Banks, who donated a record £8m to the Leave.EU campaign group, is suing Cadwalladr for defamation over two instances – one in a Ted Talk and one in a related tweet – in which she said the businessman was lying about his relationship with the Russian state.
In closing written submissions on Friday, Gavin Millar QC, for Cadwalladr, told the high court in London that Banks and his close associate Andy Wigmore, director of communications for Leave.EU, had given “contradictory and misleading accounts about his [Banks’s] meetings with Russian officials and the extent of his relationship with the Russian state” as well as who had initiated the contact with the Russian government and the reason for it.
Millar said Cadwalladr’s reporting about weaknesses in rules governing campaign expenditure, and the lack of accountability in respect of social media targeting and advertising, raised issues that “threaten the integrity of our democratic processes”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/21/cadwalladr-reports-on-arron-banks-russia-links-of-huge-public-interest-court-hears?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
