McDonald's Corporation v Steel & Morris[1997] EWHC 366 (QB), known as "the McLibel case", was an English lawsuit for libel filed by McDonald's Corporation against environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris over a factsheet critical of the company. Each of two hearings in English courts found some of the leaflet's contested claims to be libellous and others to be true.
Coleen Mary Rooney is a former television personality, and is married to former English footballer Wayne Rooney.
Laurence Paul Fox is an English actor, broadcaster, musician, and political activist. A member of the British entertainment industry's Fox family, he graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and debuted in the film The Hole (2001). His best known role is James Hathaway in the drama series Lewis (2006–2015). He has also released a studio album titled Holding Patterns (2016).
Libel tourism is a term, first coined by Geoffrey Robertson, to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United States, which provide more extensive defenses for those accused of making derogatory statements.
Katie Olivia Hopkins is an English media personality, columnist, far-right political commentator, and former businesswoman. She was a contestant on the third series of The Apprentice in 2007; following further appearances in the media, she became a columnist for British national newspapers including The Sun (2013–2015) and MailOnline (2015–2017). In 2015, she appeared on the fifteenth series of Celebrity Big Brother, finishing as runner-up, and hosted her own television talk show If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World. The following year, Hopkins became a presenter for the talk radio station LBC and underwent major brain surgery to treat her epilepsy. In 2021, she joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
Mishcon de Reya LLP is a British law firm with offices in London, Cambridge, Oxford and Singapore. Founded in 1937, it employs more than 1450 people with over 650 lawyers. It is regarded as forming part of the "Silver Circle" of leading UK law firms.
Sir David Eady is a retired High Court judge in England and Wales. As a judge, he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy cases.
Carole Jane Cadwalladr is a British author, investigative journalist and features writer. She is a features writer for The Observer and formerly worked at The Daily Telegraph. Cadwalladr rose to international prominence in 2018 for her role in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal for which she was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, alongside The New York Times reporters.
Modern libel and slander laws in many countries are originally descended from English defamation law. The history of defamation law in England is somewhat obscure; civil actions for damages seem to have been relatively frequent as far back as the Statute of Gloucester in the reign of Edward I (1272–1307). The law of libel emerged during the reign of James I (1603–1625) under Attorney General Edward Coke who started a series of libel prosecutions. Scholars frequently attribute strict English defamation law to James I's outlawing of duelling. From that time, both the criminal and civil remedies have been found in full operation.
R v Paul Chambers, popularly known as the Twitter Joke Trial, was a United Kingdom legal case centred on the conviction of a man under the Communications Act 2003 for posting a joke about destroying an airport to Twitter, a message which police regarded as "menacing". The conviction in the Magistrates' court was widely condemned as a miscarriage of justice, but was upheld on appeal to the Crown Court. Chambers appealed against the Crown Court decision to the High Court, which would ultimately quash the conviction.
British Chiropractic Association (BCA) v Singh was an influential libel action in England and Wales, widely credited as a catalytic event in the libel reform campaign which saw all parties at the 2010 general election making manifesto commitments to libel reform, and passage of the Defamation Act 2013 by the British Parliament in April 2013.
McAlpine v Bercow was a landmark libel case in 2013 between Conservative peer Lord McAlpine and Sally Bercow, the wife of John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons.
Jack Monroe is a British food writer, journalist and activist known for campaigning on poverty issues, particularly hunger relief. She initially rose to prominence when a post on her blog A Girl Called Jack went viral. She has published seven cookbooks that focus on "austerity recipes" and meals which can be made on a tight budget. She has written for publications such as The Echo, The Huffington Post and The Guardian.
Rappler is a Filipino online news website based in Pasig, Metro Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa along with a group of fellow Filipino journalists as well as technopreneurs. It started as a Facebook page named MovePH in August 2011 and evolved into a website on January 1, 2012.
Jane Maria Collins is a British politician and horse show-jumper who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2014 to 2019. She was elected in May 2014 as a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), but defected to the Brexit Party in 2019 in the last months of her membership of the European Parliament.
Gemma O'Doherty is an Irish far-right activist and conspiracy theorist. She began her career as a staff writer for the Irish Independent, contributing articles on travel, the criminal justice system and corruption, but was dismissed in 2013. She attempted to run as a candidate in the 2018 Irish presidential election, but failed to secure the minimum qualifying number of nominations required to be added to the ballot. O'Doherty was unsuccessful in the 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland, receiving 1.85% of first preference votes in the Dublin constituency. She unsuccessfully ran in the 2020 Irish general election receiving just under 2% of first preference votes.
The British Post Office scandal is a miscarriage of justice involving the wrongful civil and criminal prosecutions of an unknown or unpublished number of sub-postmasters (SPMs) for theft, false accounting and/or fraud. The cases constitute the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history, spanning a period of over twenty years; aspects of the scandal remain unresolved.
Rebekah Vardy is an English media personality married to the English football player Jamie Vardy. She was a contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2017 and on Dancing on Ice in 2021. In 2022, she lost a well-publicised libel case against Coleen Rooney, dubbed the "Wagatha Christie" trial. It was determined that Vardy did play a role in leaking fabricated stories about Rooney to The Sun, a British tabloid.
Wagatha Christie is a popular name given to a dispute between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney, which culminated in a 2022 libel case in the English High Court, Vardy v Rooney.
Tory scum is a phrase used by those who disagree strongly with the party's politics to describe members of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party. It is typically used at political demonstrations, on social media and in graffiti. Journalist Michael White called the phrase a regularly used "ancient British roar"; David Graeber, a "familiar slogan"; and Fintan O'Toole joked that in some parts of England the phrase was thought to be the actual name of the Conservatives' party. Sometimes it is directed at political parties other than the Conservatives when they are seen to be in alignment with the Conservatives.
