Issuing Media Statements And 'Setting The Record Straight'

For any press officer or communications professional when being approached for comment on a potentially damaging story, Sakho v WADA [2020] EWHC 251 (QB) is a stark reminder that providing an on the record high-risk statement to a journalist can attract litigation risk in itself. The case highlights that claimants can choose to sue in respect of false and defamatory media statements issued pre-publication by press officers to journalists as causing harm in of themselves, even in circumstances where the resulting article bears a significantly different and less grave meaning than the issued press statement.

Judgment was handed down this week by the High Court in a preliminary trial on the issue of meaning in a libel claim brought by the Premier League footballer Mamadou Sakho against the World Anti-Doping Authority (‘WADA’) in relation to anti-doping proceedings brought against Mr Sakho, in which he was ultimately found not to have committed an anti-doping violation.