THE HON. MRS JUSTICE TIPPLES
Approved judgment
Greenstein v Campaign Against Antisemitism
[2020] EWHC 2951 (QB)
43. The defendant’s case on section 3(4)(a) is set out at paragraphs 12 to 13.3 of the
amended defence. In particular, paragraph 13 alleges:
“13. The third condition, under section 3(4) … is met by any or some of all
of the following facts and matters which existed at the time the statement
complained of was published, which remains online, and from which an
honest person could have held the opinion that the claimant had lied to the
Charity Commission when he claimed that the CAA was a right-wing
political Zionist organisation that is not concerned with fascists who were
anti-semitic Holocaust deniers.
13.1
Paragraphs 9.1 to 9.17.4 above are repeated and 15.1 and 15.2 below
are repeated.
13.2
On a date unknown, the claimant told the Charity Commission that
the CAA was not concerned with fascist groups who were Holocaust
deniers.
13.3
The claimant is very interested in the defendant and what it says in its
website. He would have read on the website that the defendant
challenges neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists as part of its work.
At the time the claimant first complained to the Charity Commission
about the CAA, the defendant had recently launched a private
prosecution against far-right Holocaust denier, Alison Chabloz; had
informed the Crown Prosecution Service (“CPS”) that it was
intending to privately prosecute neo-Nazi leader Jack Renshaw unless
it acted; and had successfully taken the CPS to judicial review for its
failure to prosecute neo-Nazi leader, Jeremy Bedford-Turner.
Amongst the articles published on the CAA website, which the
claimant would have seen, the following about Neo-Nazis have been
published: [the titles of nine such articles are then listed].”
44. The claimant does not dispute any of the particulars alleged in paragraph 13 of the
amended defence, or that the articles refer to right-wing fascists. Rather the claimant
denies “that the third condition of the defence (section 3(4) [of the 2013 Act]) is met
by any, some or all of the particulars set out at paragraph 13 of the amended
defence” and he alleges that an honest person’s opinion would be informed by a
number of other matters he has set out at paragraph 25.2 of the amended reply.
However, these other matters are nothing to the point given the nature of the test
under section 3(4)(a).
45. Given there is no dispute that the claimant accepts he is very interested in the
defendant and what it says in its website, that he would have read on the website that
the defendant challenges neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists as part of its work,
and that articles on the defendant’s website refer to right-wing fascists, in my
judgment it is obvious that on 26 February 2017, the date the First Article was
published, an honest person could express the opinion that the claimant had lied
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