The Royal Courts of Justice, a British court docket, has discovered a self-styled Nigerian investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, responsible of libel and has ordered him to pay the sum of £95,000 as damages to Charles Northcott.
The complainant Northcott works with the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). Hundeyin made weighty allegations in opposition to him in his ”Journalism Profession Graveyard” article.
Hundeyin had made a number of allegations in opposition to Northcott following the publication of his article, together with accusing Northcott of utilizing his place because the director of the documentary movie to acquire sexual favours from Kiki Mordi, Nigerian Emmy-nominated journalist, who was the on-screen reporter for the BBC’s Intercourse for Grades documentary.
“I settle for C’s proof that D’s libel has had a really severe influence on him each professionally and personally and triggered him severe hurt and misery. His witness assertion adopts and develops the particulars of hurt pleaded within the PoC, and I settle for each of their entirety.
“The court docket awards C £95,000 damages, together with aggravated damages. That is an applicable sum to compensate C for the harm to his repute attributable to D and to vindicate his good title; and it takes applicable account of the misery, damage and humiliation which D’s false and defamatory publication has triggered him, in addition to D’s aggravating conduct,” the court docket’s doc on the case learn partly.
It additionally ordered the web site operators to take away the related a part of Hundeyin’s article, which it discovered offensive.
The court docket handed the judgement on October 8, 2024. Northcott, the complainant, was represented by Ms Wilson, whereas Hundeyin was neither current nor represented in court docket. The court docket famous that it handed judgement in Hundeyin’s absence.
In 2019, freelance journalist Ms Mordi collaborated with a group from the BBC to provide a 54-minute documentary. This documentary uncovered how lecturers at sure Nigerian universities prey on weak feminine college students, reminiscent of these dealing with tutorial challenges, looking for admission, or in want of mentorship, by demanding sexual favours in trade for tutorial advantages.
She labored alongside Norcott and different journalists on the venture.
Three years after the discharge of the documentary, Hundeyin revealed an article titled “Journalism Profession Graveyard”, the place he accused Norcott of getting an inappropriate sexual relationship with Mordi and favoured her to work on the Intercourse for Grades documentary whereas sidelining and deceiving Oge Obi, whom Hundeyin claimed was the mind behind the BBC documentary.
In September 2022, X (previously Twitter) went agog after Hundeyin shared the expose on his profile. The article, its related hashtags, and tweets garnered substantive traction following Hundeyin’s put up.
Northcott stated the put up acquired greater than 40 million on-line impressions between September 27 and October 31, 2022.
“I labored with a colleague to run an evaluation of the defamatory Article, and its related hashtags and tweets by Mr Hundeyin, to see how far it had unfold between 27 September and 31 October 2022. This evaluation urged the content material had acquired greater than 40 million on-line impressions throughout this era (that are calculated by monitoring the whole variety of occasions the content material was displayed throughout Twitter on customers’ feeds and on search outcomes). A big share of those would have been overseas, however a really important proportion of Mr Hundeyin’s followers are in England and Wales. He was educated right here, has been invited to talk publicly right here … and he’s launched two books right here – that are bought in British bookstores,” Northcott’s assertion learn.
Following the article’s publication, Hundeyin made posts the place he tagged Mordi’s deal with on X, daring her and others who had points with the expose to sue him.
On one event, he wrote: “Then why don’t you sue me for categorically stating that you simply had intercourse a number of occasions with @CNorthcott1 in the midst of producing that documentary and that this shaped the only real foundation of your fraudulent “profession”?…,” Hundeyin’s put up on October 1, 2022, learn partly.
One other of his posts learn, “As for the people who find themselves consistently threatening ‘authorized steps’ as a result of my tales have uncovered their true nature to their worldwide donors, NGOs and state actors, right here is @WestAfricaWeek’s tackle. For those who don’t sue me, you’re all bastards. I double dare you…”
Hundeyin additionally posted a video of Northcott and Mordi climbing onto the bottom of a statue in Trafalgar Sq.. Hundeyin wrote, “Hello @kikimordi. I’m certain you by no means thought this video of you and @CNorthcott1 would ever floor, however that’s the reason actual journalism won’t ever die when individuals like me are round. Your ‘profession’ is over, you glory searching, honey trapping fraud!’ because the video’s caption.
Northcott sued Hundeyin for libel, stating that his actions critically impacted his profession and triggered him damages. The court docket ordered Hundeyin to take down the article however ignored the orders.
The court docket famous that the video confirmed nothing to corroborate the Defendant’s allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship. It added that Hundeyin’s behaviour post-publication comfortably fell inside the ideas of aggravated damages and trolling, which triggered Mordi and Northcott misery.
“All of D’s behaviour post-publication comfortably falls inside the ideas in relation to aggravated damages that I outlined earlier. D, having critically libelled C, then embarked upon a marketing campaign of trolling and persecution in a fashion calculated to trigger C and Ms Mordi most misery and harm. Furthermore, he has didn’t take down the Article as ordered by this court docket in July,” the court docket dominated.
