Jonny Gould’s Jewish State

100: 🌍 John Ware: Three years. Three cases. Three wins.

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Episode notes

John Ware is the BBC Panorama documentary maker who took on the Corbynites - and won. His 2019 documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic?”, which was aired on BBC1, launched three long years of bitter legal struggle. It’s unusual for a journalist to sue for defamation - but everything was at stake for John - from his own reputation to the basic principles of journalistic process. So John sued the Labour Party, Jewish Voice for Labour and a fellow journalist, Paddy French - and with great fortitude and resilience won through. It’s not entirely over. John needs to collect the damages awarded from those who defamed him and now Al Jazeera have produced what he calls “agenda journalism” in a 17 minute segment of a documentary, which vilifies a young man by the name of Luke Stranger. We highlight that in this episode too. John’s not earned a penny for twelve months: defamation is a harrowing weight on one’s mind. Not to mention the headspace one also needs to keep up with the news as a working journalist. But he’s back on the saddle and preparing to make another Panorama documentary on - Brexit! Find out how much the legal process cost those who defamed him, who they were in this gripping insider’s view.

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