Barclay brothers sue Times for libel in French court
This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 21st April 2005.

By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor

Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, the owners of The Daily Telegraph, have launched criminal libel proceedings against The Times over a report about their business activities, it was confirmed yesterday.

Officers from Scotland Yard's extradition squad arrived at the London office of The Times on Tuesday evening to serve a summons on the editor, Robert Thomson, and his media editor, Dan Sabbagh.

They and their newspaper are required to appear before a court in Paris on June 23, when a date will probably be set for their trial. If convicted, they could be fined.

Sir David and Sir Frederick claim they were defamed by an article in The Times last November, headlined "Twins who swoop on owners in difficulty".

It alleged that, "rather than specialise in businesses in distress, the Barclays often take advantage of owners in distress to pick up assets on the cheap".

Sir David and Sir Frederick told The Times that they regarded these allegations as untrue and defamatory. A spokesman for the brothers said yesterday that they had made 15 acquisitions since 1981, all purchased from public companies or in open market competition. No asset had been picked up from an individual "in distress".

The article was one of a series over three days that the brothers regarded as an orchestrated attack on them from a competitor, designed to discredit them as owners of The Daily Telegraph and therefore to attack their newspaper as well.

Sir David and Sir Frederick had taken proceedings under French law because it was quicker and simpler, their spokesman said. The Times had refused to withdraw or apologise for what the brothers saw as a personal attack on their credibility.

They had no intention of curbing freedom of expression, but they believed that editions of The Times published in France should comply with French law. That requires a newspaper to give a droit de réponse, or right of reply, to anyone it mentions, whether or not they have been defamed.

The request must be made within three months of publication and the correction must be published within three days of its receipt, or in the next issue of the publication, in the same part of the newspaper. If the request is refused, the complainant has three months to start criminal proceedings.

Monique Fauchon, one of the lawyers acting for Sir David and Sir Frederick, said yesterday that the droit de réponse was an important counterbalance to freedom of expression under French law. It was frequently used, cost nothing and worked well.

Shortly after receiving his summons, Mr Thomson said he regretted that Sir David and Sir Frederick had decided to take action in the French courts because they "were quite entitled to bring a case under British libel laws, which are among the toughest in the world".

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