The Royal Courts of Justice in the UK, has found Nigerian investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, guilty of libel, following defamatory claims made in his article, Journalism Career Graveyard.
The court ruled on October 8, 2024, that Hundeyin must pay £95,000 in damages to BBC journalist Charles Northcott, who was accused of exploiting his position as director of the S3x for Grades documentary to solicit s3xual favors from Kiki Mordi, an Emmy-nominated Nigerian journalist featured in the documentary.
In his article, Hundeyin also alleged that Northcott favored Mordi over Oge Obi, who he claimed was the real architect of the documentary. Northcott strongly denied these accusations, asserting they caused significant professional and personal harm. The court accepted Northcott’s evidence, recognizing the damage done to his reputation and the emotional distress caused by Hundeyin’s defamatory statements.
The ruling also criticized Hundeyin’s post-publication conduct, which included a social media campaign that was described as a deliberate attempt to inflict maximum harm and humiliation. The court noted that Hundeyin’s actions exacerbated the damage, labelling his behavior as aggravated, and ordered the removal of the defamatory sections from the hosting website.
Northcott’s analysis revealed that the article and its associated posts garnered over 40 million impressions online between September and October 2022, with a significant portion of the audience in England and Wales. Despite a court order in July 2024 for Hundeyin to remove the article, he failed to comply.
Hundeyin continued to provoke those involved by daring them to take legal action and sharing unrelated footage of Northcott and Mordi, which he claimed supported his allegations. The court dismissed these claims, finding no evidence of any inappropriate relationship and labeling Hundeyin’s actions as trolling.
Northcott was represented by Ms. Wilson, while Hundeyin neither attended the court proceedings nor had legal representation.
