London, December 2016. Carter-Ruck solicitors have issued a series of legal complaints against some Caribbean newspapers including Daily Observer, News784 and Barbados Today in relation to articles published on 7 November 2016 in the print or online editions of the newspapers.
These articles wrongly claimed that there were “numerous allegations” in the British media that members of a delegation allegedly led by Anthony Bailey for the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George received knighthoods “in exchange for money”.
These articles have now been withdrawn and a series of retractions and apologies have been published.
To read the correction and apology published by the Daily Observer please click here.
To read the correction and apology published by the News784 please click here.
To read the news story about Barbados Today please click here.
Barbados Gazette has also removed its article entitled “Antigua government revokes two knighthoods” following the legal complaint sent by Carter-Ruck.
In addition following a formal legal made by Anthony Bailey against Freedom FM radio in relation to articles published in the regional news section of their website under the headings: “Knighthood scandal” and “Allegations of corruption leveled against Baroness Scotland”, Freedom FM has removed the articles from publication and has published a retraction and apology on 30 May and 6 June 2016.
To read the correction and apology published by Freedom FM please click here.
The apologies followed also a ruling in the United Kingdom by The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) in London which formally upheld the complaint against The Mail on Sunday under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editor’s Code of Practice for their article entitled “Queen’s envoy ‘Baroness Brazen’ is entangled in honours scandal: Title given to Commonwealth chief’s crony is ‘reviewed’ after she is accused of abusing the system“ written by Ned Donovan and Ian Gallagher and published on 29 May 2016.
To read the full story about the IPSO ruling and the correction published by The Mail on Sunday please click here.
For further information please contact Dominic Garner or Nigel Tait at Carter-Ruck solicitors on 020 7353 5005, or via email at: dominic.garner@carter-ruck.com and nigel.tait@carter-ruck.com.