By Free Republic | Created at 2024-10-30 16:43:41 | Updated at 2024-10-31 01:29:21
9 hours ago
The Cost of Candour
SteynonLine ^ | October 29, 2024 | Mark Steyn
Posted on 10/30/2024 9:26:50 AM PDT by Twotone
It could be worse.
Mark could be banged up in Belmarsh like poor old Tommy.
Today, Justice Farbey of the High Court in London ruled:
1) the costs demanded by Ofcom are to be sent for detailed assessment on the standard basis
2) there will be a payment on account of £50,000 by 19 November 2024
3) Costs of today to be paid by the Claimants, save in relation to the written submissions which will be paid at 50%
Mark will have twenty-one days to consider an appeal.
Ofcom had demanded £144,959.28, refused to provide detailed billing to justify that amount, and then twisted that to mock the actual harm they have caused Mark and Naomi Wolf: (Steyn's) post ad hoc attempt to downplay the importance of these Claims at §14.3 also stands in marked contrast to his own witness statement, in which he portrayed the alleged "chilling" effect of Ofcom's decisions for freedom of expression is existential terms, going as far as to assert that their consequence had been to "utterly to kill our careers in the British Isles, and to see crude defamations of us recycled throughout the London papers as if they had the force of criminal convictions".
Our costs attorney, Edward Strickland, in no way downplayed the importance of the claims but rather argued:
The total costs sought of £144,959.28 against a single party for a 1 day hearing (where the core bundle was a mere 144 pages, the agreed correspondence bundle was a mere 81 pages) is entirely disproportionate and not reasonable.
Our attorney was successful in obtaining an order that Ofcom's billing must go through a detailed assessment.
Oh, and Ofcom also lied to Steyn about the status of their "investigation":
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: covid; marksteyn; ofcom
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1 posted on 10/30/2024 9:26:50 AM PDT by Twotone
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