James Delingpole beats a Press Complaint from UEA

Guest Post by Barry Woods

The University of East Anglia has made complaints to the Press Complaints Commission about three blog posts by James Delingpole (photo at left) in the Telegraph about Professor Phil Jones and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA, UK).

James Delingpole (The Telegraph, Spectator) is one of only a few MSM  journalists to persistently criticise the science and politics of man-made global warming in the UK not just after the climategate emails (he was the first in the UK – 20th November 2009) but for a long time prior to the leak from CRU at the University of East Anglia.  His blog post on the Press Complaints appears here

I imagine that UEA may now be regretting making these complaints to the Press Complaints Commission, as it is now officially upheld in James Delingpole’s and the Telegraphs favour, with the reasons visible to any other journalist that may take an interest (my bold).

The first complaint from UEA was this:

“In particular, the complainants were concerned that the blog posts described Professor Phil Jones as “disgraced, FOI-breaching, email-deleting, scientific-method abusing”.  They explained that Professor Phil Jones had been exonerated of any dishonesty or scientific malpractice by a series of reviews” – Press Complaints Commission

The Press Complaints Commission ruling explains it’s decision on the first blog post with evidence provided by the Telegraph:

Through its correspondence the newspaper had provided some evidence in support of the statements under dispute, and the columnist had included some of this evidence in the second blog post under discussion.

In relation to the columnist’s description of Professor Jones as “FOI-breaching, email-deleting”, the newspaper had provided extracts from an email from Professor Jones in which he had written “If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone”, and another email in which he had written

“Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?”. – Press Complaints Commission ruling

The threat of, or taking legal action against critics of ‘climate science’ does appear to be on the rise, this is a concern as few bloggers have any means to defend themselves legally. If actions like this are not fought and won, all perhaps it would take is a lawyer’s letter from a complainant with deep pockets (like UEA) for the blog owner to have to make a difficult personal and financial decision.  Additionally, these actions may result in a form of self censorship with blogger and journalists not daring to comment.

“Basically the UEA were trying to use the PCC as a way of gagging this blog from speaking unpalatable truths about the shoddy goings-on in its notorious Climatic Research Unit.” – James Delingpole

How many blog owners or other journalists without the backing of an experienced legal team and the Telegraph would have been able to take this case on? James explains the help and support he had with this Press Complaint and I imagine the case was the cause of some stress and concern for him, (he perhaps has had cause to make his own complaint recently, see his BBC experience) as not winning could have potentially damaged his livelihood as a writer and journalist.

“I’m hugely grateful to my legal advisers, as well as to experts including Steve McIntyre, Andrew Montford, Richard North and Christopher Booker.” – James Delingpole

I hope that James Delingpole and the Telegraph winning this complaint will make ‘climate scientists’ think more carefully about  trying to use legal means to gag the right to fair comment. James Delingpole sounds mightily relieved and is off on holiday for a couple of weeks surfing (in the UK, so a brave soul)

“To its enormous credit the PCC stuck up for fair comment and freedom of speech. This is a massive victory not just for me and Telegraph blogs, but for bloggers everywhere – especially those doughty souls around the world who are battling against Establishment lies, bullying and cover ups to try to reveal the truth about the corrupt, mendacious Climate Change industry.

If it sounds like I’m overdoing it, consider this: the PCC’s ruling must be among the first by any quasi-official body anywhere in the world to take the side of a Climate Change sceptic rather than that of the Warmist establishment” – James Delingpole

I was completely unaware that this case was going on until I read about in James Delingpole’s latest blog post and it did make me think what I would have done if a lawyer’s letter found its way to my blog with a threat of legal action.  So hopefully now, before ‘climate scientists’ and politicians rush to the courts they will now think more carefully of the potential outcomes. If only because it may backfire on them and that they realise as he won the complaint, others in the media might pay more attention to the reason why he won the complaint.

Press Complaints ruling in full (my bold):

Commission’s decision in the case of

University of East Anglia v The Daily Telegraph

The complainants, acting on behalf of the University of East Anglia (UEA), complained that three blog posts by James Delingpole were inaccurate and misleading and contained distorted information in breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code.

In particular, the complainants were concerned that the blog posts described Professor Phil Jones as “disgraced, FOI-breaching, email-deleting, scientific-method abusing”.  They explained that Professor Phil Jones had been exonerated of any dishonesty or scientific malpractice by a series of reviews.

They were concerned that a second blog post repeated accusations that had been demonstrated as untrue, concluding that the University’s scientists were “untrustworthy, unreliable and entirely unfit to write the kind of reports on which governments around the world make their economic and environmental decisions”, and a third blog post referred to the scientists’ work as “shoddy” and “mendacious”.

The Commission emphasised that the articles in question were blog posts and were clearly identifiable as such to readers generally, as they were posited in the ‘Telegraph Blogs’ section of the website and written under the columnist’s prominent by-line.  The Commission was satisfied that readers would be aware that the comments therein represented the columnist’s own robust views of the matters in question.  Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code permits the publication of such comment provided it is clearly distinguished from fact and does not contain significantly inaccurate, misleading or distorted information.

The Commission has previously ruled [North v The Guardian] that “In the realm of blogging (especially in cases touching upon controversial topics such as climate change), there is likely to be strong and fervent disagreement, with writers making use of emotive terms and strident rhetoric.  This is a necessary consequence of free speech. The Commission felt that it should be slow to intervene in this, unless there is evidence of factual inaccuracy or misleading statement.”

Through its correspondence the newspaper had provided some evidence in support of the statements under dispute, and the columnist had included some of this evidence in the second blog post under discussion.

In relation to the columnist’s description of Professor Jones as “FOI-breaching, email-deleting”, the newspaper had provided extracts from an email from Professor Jones in which he had written

“If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone”,

and another email in which he had written

“Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?”.

With respect to the columnist’s assertion that Professor Jones was “scientific method-abusing”, the newspaper had provided an extract from an email from Professor Jones in which he had written

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline”.

In view of this, the Commission considered that there were some grounds for the columnist’s opinion – which readers would recognise was subjective – on these points. The complainants emphasised that Professor Phil Jones and the other scientists discussed in the blog post had been cleared by a number of independent reviews.  The Commission noted that the columnist had referred to these reviews, and that readers would therefore have been aware that they had taken place.

In the first blog post complained of the columnist had referred to “unconvincing attempts to clear the Climategate scientists”, and noted that one scientist, Mike Hulme, had “managed to emerge from the Climategate scandal smelling of violets”.  He had also noted in the first blog post that Professor Jones had granted interviews “presenting himself as a man far more sinned against than sinning”.

The columnist in the second blog post complained of had expanded on his comments and made clear that the scientists had “apparently… been ‘exonerated and cleared of all malpractice by a series of independent reviews’”, although he made clear that he did not consider these reviews to have been “independent”, citing a report by Andrew Montford which was critical of the reviews.

While the complainants had expressed concern that the Montford report was “partisan”, the Commission considered that the columnist was entitled to agree with the report. The Commission was satisfied that readers would be aware of the context of the columnist’s robust views – clearly recognisable as his subjective opinion – that the scientists were “untrustworthy, unreliable and entirely unfit to write the kind of reports on which governments around the world make their economic and environmental decisions”, and that their work was “shoddy” and “mendacious”.  In the circumstances, it did not consider that there had been a breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Code.

The Commission noted that the newspaper had offered the complainants an opportunity to respond on the blog post.  It considered that this would inform readers of the full context of the dispute and the complainants’ position.  The Commission welcomed this offer, and hoped it would remain open to the complainants.