Tweets about anti-abortion charity cost Lambeth Council £5k

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Tweets about anti-abortion charity cost Lambeth Council £5k

Postby Community Editor » Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:28 am

Tweets from Lambeth Council and a councillor about an anti-abortion charity which were kicked out of the country fair have cost Lambeth Council £5k in a damages settlement.

Anti-abortion organisation Life took the council to court for libel and infringing its freedom of expression under human rights law after it was booted out of the Lambeth Country Fair last year.

Tweets from both the official Lambeth Council account and Cllr Ed Davie later claimed its stall at the fair was booked using “inaccurate information” and “wasn’t officially allowed.On July 22, the second day of the show, Cllr Davie replied to a tweet asking why the group was removed from the show.

His tweet read: “It’s a community festival – that includes women who have had to make really hard family planning decisions who don’t want plastic foetuses in their faces.”

He also tweeted: ‘It wasn’t officially allowed. They were not on the approved list of exhibitors, we tried to get them removed and will make sure not there today.”

On the same day, the council tweeted: “The stall in question was booked using inaccurate information. After the nature of the booking was revealed, and following complaints, the stall was prevented from opening on the second day of the Lambeth Country Show. The return of materials from the stall has been arranged.”

Lambeth Council also had to tweet an apology to the organisation.

A Lambeth Council spokesman said: “Lambeth Council and Life reached a settlement on October 12, 2018 in relation to threatened claims arising from the removal of Life’s stall from the 2018 Lambeth Country Show.

“Lambeth agreed to pay Life £5,000 in damages, publish an apology on Twitter and has undertaken not to publish, or cause to be published, the same or similar words to those originally tweeted by the council on July 22, 2018.”

Life’s head of advocacy Liz Parsons said: “The stall at Lambeth sought to educate people about the unborn baby and advertise our care services for pregnant women, including those who are homeless or in need of emotional and practical support.

“We must, and will, challenge any organisation which tries in any way to impede this important work.”

The settlement was announced in front of a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice today.

What do you think about this? Should an anti-abortion organisation's stall be allowed at a county fair?

Source: https://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/ne ... ouncil-5k/

Photo: Life's stall at the Lambeth Country Fair
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