Former journalist Gemma O’Doherty has launched legal proceedings against Village magazine. O’Doherty announced the move after the magazine published an editorial criticising O’Doherty as a racist and conspiracy theorist.
This is the third legal action O’Doherty has initiated for defamation in recent months.
Editorial
In an editorial in its most recent edition Village’s editor, Michael Smith, wrote that O’Doherty “conjures a racial apocalypse on Twitter”. He went on to argue that:
The racism comes primarily from the fact she never refers favourably to Muslims or Africans, but often associates them with extremism and violence.
Smith also wrote that the former journalist regularly retweets racist content, including tweets which “suggested Africans have inferior IQ to Caucasians”. And she has, it was opined, linked Ireland’s housing crisis to immigration.
In response, O’Doherty said on Twitter that Village and Smith committed “possibly the most egregious defamation in the history of the state”. And as a result, she would be launching proceedings in the High Court.
Defamation
Smith has now confirmed that he has received a letter from O’Doherty’s legal representatives, KRW Law. The letter refers to the editorial in question. It’s written that the editorial
is grossly defamatory of her reputation as an award winning journalist and endangers her safety.
The letter goes on to state that KRW have requested an “emergency hearing” in the High Court. This is to
compel you to take immediate steps to withdraw all distribution of said offending publications.
But on Twitter Smith revealed that he has yet to receive the “promised plenary summons”. Despite writing that it is seeking “immediate injunctive relief” and an “emergency hearing”, this has also yet to emerge.
Lawfare
This is now the third defamation case that O’Doherty has launched in recent months. In July her legal representatives filed a countersuit against Dr. David Robert Grimes after he launched defamation proceedings against her the previous June. O’Doherty has also recently filed a defamation suit against LGBTQI+ activist Panti Bliss, AKA Rory O’Neill.
And with the case against Village, this now makes three legal actions in the High Court that she has initiated for defamation.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons – Sinn Féin
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