Geo News London reporter defamation case: Ex-PTI official issues public apology

LONDON: A former official of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has issued a public apology and agreed to pay £40,000 in legal costs to a correspondent in the defamation case brought against three former officials of PTI UK at the London High Court.

After defending his position for nearly four years, Riaz Hussain finally accepted that he had defamed Geo News journalist, Murtaza Ali Shah, and issued an apology and agreed to pay legal costs. 

Hussain has now dropped out of the case by disassociating himself from the false allegations made against Shah, leaving his co-defendants Mohammad Imran (northwest region’s former president) and Shanaz Saddique (also known as Shanaz Hussain, former northwest general secretary) to continue defending the cases brought against them. The case is now at a critical stage.

Hussain (former additional general secretary northwest region) made the following apology which he read out in Urdu and published on his Facebook page: “I wish to apologise to Murtaza Ali Shah, Chief Correspondent of Geo News and Associate Resident Editor of Jang Group of Newspapers in the UK. On 20 April 2020 I published a video on my Facebook account in which I alleged that Murtaza Ali Shah was corrupt and has been harming Pakistan by knowingly misleading people through his journalism. The High Court determined on 26 January 2023 that this allegation was defamatory of Mr Shah. I now wish to state clearly that I accept this allegation is false and untrue. Mr Shah is not corrupt. He has not harmed Pakistan or misled people through his journalism."

“On 20 April 2020, 22 April 2020 and 23 April 2020 I published a link to a petition in which it was alleged that Mr Shah has been misusing his position as a journalist by reporting news which he knows to be false and making allegations which he knows to be baseless with the aim of misleading his audience and garnering attention," he said.

“The High Court determined that this allegation was also defamatory of Mr Shah. I now wish to state clearly that I also accept that this allegation is false and untrue. Mr Shah has not misused his position as a journalist, he has not reported news which he knew to be false nor has he made allegations which were baseless in order to mislead his audiences or garner attention.”

“I unconditionally apologise to Mr Shah for the serious harm to his reputation which he has suffered and for the significant distress, upset and embarrassment which these publications have caused him. I have agreed to pay a substantial sum towards Mr Shah’s legal costs," he added.

Hussain’s apology and settlement came after the High Court last year ordered the three defendants to pay £23,115.60 towards the journalists legal costs following a strike out application. This sum has not been paid and the remaining defendants will be back before the court in September to face an application for debarring. 

The court has already issued a charging order on Shanaz Saddique’s property in favour of the journalist for the outstanding legal costs.

At the time of making the defamatory statements and running a smear campaign in March 2020, the three held powerful positions in the PTI UK even though PTI UK and Pakistan did not support the personalised smear campaign of the three: Mohammad Imran, Shanaz Saddique and Riaz Hussain.

They started a seriously false and defamatory campaign against the reporter through online apps – WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and through known and unknown numbers – in March/April 2020 to attack the reporter’s integrity. 

The case was issued a year later in March 2021. They united to attack this reporter through unverified and false social media posts, petitions and online campaigns targeting the journalist for his reporting including his stance on the arrest and detention of Geo and Jang Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on March 12, 2020 and this reporter’s expose of how the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) had targeted the children of now-retired Justice Qazi Faez Isa using a detective agency in the UK – a fact acknowledged also by Imran Khan after he was ousted from power.

High Court Judge Justice Steyn, DBE, sitting at the King’s Bench Division of the Royal Courts of Justice, ruled in March 2023 that the words used by Imran, Saddique and Hussain against the media person were defamatory at common law. 

Justice Steyn, DBE, accepted most of the meanings advanced by Shah’s barrister, Jacob Dean, and ruled that in all six publications by the defendants, the journalist was defamed at common law and met the threshold of seriousness.

The claimant is represented by barrister Jacob Dean KC of 5RB Chambers, instructed by Stone White Solicitors.