Rushdie wins apology - and spurns cash - in libel case
Helen Pidd writing in The Guardian,
Wednesday August 27 2008

For many high-profile public figures, a visit to the libel courts has become something akin to a trip to the casino: victory triggers a large windfall and a substantially enhanced reputation.
Yesterday, Sir Salman Rushdie achieved the latter, but notably turned his back on the chance of a big payday as his legal team forced an apology from a former policeman who had painted a disparaging picture of the author in a sensationalist book.

Four thousand copies of Ron Evans's account of his life as a protection officer have been pulped and unreserved apologies were offered in court yesterday by his publisher and his ghost writer. But while Rushdie's costs were met, he eschewed the prospect of damages, preferring a swift retraction of falsehoods which first appeared in a newspaper serialisation and then travelled around the world as they were copied by innumerable websites.

Go to the Guardian online.